|
|
Miguelito's Photo Diary and BlogDecember 5, 2005 - December 15, 2005
Pink Flamenco December 15, 2005 It's 6:57am on Thursday as I type these words. Wow, can you believe that I managed to stay up all night? (I was working on an important project.) Um, well that's not much of a stretch. It's more like, can you believe that I'm actually up at this early hour? I took a hot shower to wake up.  December 15, 2005 6:52am As I came downstairs from the bathroom, this is the view of dance studio next to my room. (And no, I didn't carry my camera with me to the bathroom. I went into my room to grab it and came back out to take this pic. I'm not that photo crazy!) That's the extent of our Christmas decoration for the Pink Flamenco Artists' Residence. :-) A dancer friend stopped by around 9:00am to use my computer to work on her website. Turns out I had the exact software (Adobe ImageReady) and reference book (see below) that she needed. But for me, it was especially nice to have some friendly company in the house on such a cold and snowy day.  December 15, 2006 10:04am I highly recommend this book if you use Photoshop CS:   Of course we squeezed in a quick rehearsal in the studio next to my room.  December 15, 2006 12:38pm It's 5:28pm on Thursday as I type these words. It's been one of those days where I spent pretty much the whole day inside the house. It was still productive though. Plus I had the pleasure of practicing with a dancer without having to travel to a studio (not that a long distance ever discouraged me from rehearsing with a dancer)--well OK, so I had to open my bedroom door to "travel" to the studio. :-) It's supposed to sleet tonight and I'm wondering if my show might be cancelled due to the weather. You know how we Washingtonians are: we're wimps when it comes to weather--an inch of snow accumulates and the whole city shuts down. With sleet and hail, restaurant reservations get cancelled etc. We'll see. Who knows maybe I'll stay at home tonight--err, I'm not so crazy about that idea. Well at least I've been booked for a couple of last-minute gigs: Yesterday, I did a two-hour rumba gig at the DC convention center. Tomorrow (Friday) I'm doing flamenco shows at the National Zoo in the afternoon and Sunday I have another rumba gig in Virginia somewhere that'll pretty much pay my rent for this month, yay! It's 6:58pm on Thursday. Just heard that Andalucia's show is officially cancelled for tonight. What to do? I could brave the sleet and see a movie--there's a theater walking distance from here. Gotta get some dinner first though. Ciao for now! Cafe Bonaparte December 14, 2005 It's 1:10am on Thursday. Got some "homework" to work on that'll probably keep me up all night. :-) Anyway, here are some random pics from today with some brief commentary. You're not supposed bring dogs on the metro, but this one managed to get smuggled in and I just had to take a picture. Can anyone tell me what kind of dog it is? ;-) 
Doggie on the metro. December 14, 2005 7:19pm This is a framed postcard in the bathroom at Cafe Bonaparte. It's like the dancer is strumming the strings of a giant guitar. 
December 14, 2005 7:58pm 
Miguelito and Carlton. December 14, 2005 9:46pm It was a tough night cuz the crowd wasn't getting into our show. So for the last set, I decided to just cut the power to the sound system and we just performed for ourselves "unplugged." This was the second gig I had today. Fortunately, I had time to take an hour-long nap after the first gig and before leaving the house to come here. I'm not tired--just in a mellowed-out mood. 
Chillin' out before the last set. December 14, 2005 10:31pm This was our favorite server's last night here at Bonaparte. Her name is Hillary and she's leaving for Prague this Friday to spend a semester there studying political science, but she might be back in DC in the summer. We'll miss you Hillary! 
Behzad open your eyes, there's a hottie standing next to you. :-) December 14, 2005 11:32pm 
December 14, 2005 11:35pm OK enough writing for now. It's 1:17am on Thursday and I got stuff to work on! Ciao for now. Las Tapas December 13, 2005 It's 11:58am on Wednesday as I type these words. I have a rehearsal in half an hour (with another guitarist) but thank God it's in my house, yay! I only have time to upload one photo and pull out my guitar and warm-up my hands a bit. I'll add more pics when I get home late tonight from my gig at Cafe Bonaparte. Ciao for now! 
Anna Menéndez, Shahram Tehranian and Miguelito. December 13, 2005 8:14pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) It's 6:20pm on Wednesday as I type these words. Just got back from my afternoon gig with just enough time to add a few more pics from last night at Las Tapas.  December 13, 2005 (photo by Carla Pacheco)  December 13, 2005 (photo by Carla Pacheco)  December 13, 2005 (photo by Carla Pacheco)  December 13, 2005 (photo by Carla Pacheco)  December 13, 2005 (photo by Carla Pacheco)  December 13, 2005 (photo by Carla Pacheco)  December 13, 2005 (photo by Carla Pacheco) Someone just emailed me asking me to post a pic of yours truly working on this photo diary. I have some fans out there! ;-) Yeah there really is a (hard working) human being behind this kickass website! 
December 14, 2005 6:21pm (photo by Y.T.) OK it's 6:28pm on Wednesday. Time for me to go to Cafe Bonaparte and setup my sound system for tonight's gig. Ciao for now! Cafe Citron December 12, 2005 It's 7:33am on Tuesday as I type these words. Last night (Monday) at Citron was especially good. I was amazed at how much of a crowd we got for a very cold Monday night. What made it good was that I had a lot of my friends in the audience including Madiha. 
Christmas spirit behind the bar. December 12, 2005 10:27pm I met Madiha last year when she would come to Citron almost every Monday all summer long with her three school friends Lilian (from Senegal), Ivana (from Slovakia) and Gisele (from Perú). I used to call them the international version of Sex in the City . :-) 
International Sex in the City girls: Madiha, Giselle, Ivana and Lillian. Archive photo from August 2, 2004 She emailed me Monday morning telling me she was coming to Citron--I hadn't seen her in months. So I was expecting just her and maybe one or two friends. But no, she brought like twelve and they somehow squeezed into the first two booths in front of the stage! 
Madiha and her international friends. December 12, 2005 10:30pm Madiha writes: Some of the countries represented amongst Madiha's friends include Pakistan, Nepal, Lebanon, Bangladesh and the Phillipines. This is dancer Mariya and I, with her boyfriend Keith behind. After the show, I practiced salsa with Mariya and even ended with a dip that I learned last week from the famous Hannah Cole! 
December 12, 2005 10:41pm This is a parting shot as we left the club to go home. DJ Helio was really on last night cuz he kept the people dancing non-stop. 
December 12, 2005 11:38pm Didn't ask anyone to take pics of the show. I figure you've seen tons of pics of us onstage at Citron already. But at least I got some pics of the audience who are just as important! Jaleo Crystal City December 11, 2005 I always welcome submission of photos for my blog--although I don't publish everything I receive...I am very picky! Despite being the busiest flamenco performer in DC, I can't possibly attend every event so I appreciate the help. Thanks Jen! 
Renee and Jennifer. December 11, 2005 (photo courtesy of Jennifer)  December 11, 2005 (photo courtesy of Jennifer) 
William. December 11, 2005 (photo courtesy of Jennifer)  December 11, 2005 (photo courtesy of Jennifer) Sunday with Miguelito December 11, 2005 It's 2:09pm on Sunday as I type these words. I'm back from the Stadium Armory. On my way there this morning I realized I had forgotten my camera AND my palm pilot--the price for not getting enough sleep! Fortunately, I had my camera phone, but let's be honest, the picture quality isn't that good. As far the Palm, I could still do some writing the old-fashioned way: pen and paper... 
December 11, 2005 10:27am (photo taken with my camera phone) I took a lot of pictures of Furia Flamenca at the Stadium Armory. This is the only decent one that came out...  December 11, 2005 11:47am (photo taken with my camera phone) 
Lillian and Karina in Sevillanas. December 11, 2005 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde) Aside from the performance itself, there wasn't much of interest for me at this Feria de la Familia. So I visited my friends who happened to be working at this event. My dancer friend Karina was at the booth for National HIV Aids Partnership. 
Karina at work. December 11, 2005 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde) She's one of the apprentice dancers in the Furia Flamenca company and I took the liberty of giving her my constructive criticism of her performance--she wanted to hear it cuz she knows it would help her improve. She danced Sevillanas and Guajiras. I also ran into Indira Terrazas, a DJ for Radio Viva 900. I'm always running into her at flamenco events, but this was the first time I saw her work promoting her radio station. I also ran into Ruth Metzel, the high school student who brought a flamenco show her high school last month (Marsha's first time to perform with me in the DC area). OK it's 2:27pm on Sunday. Time to sign off and take a quick nap before getting out of the house again. Ciao for now. It's 11:45pm on Sunday. I went to the movies with a friend to see Syriana. Yay! Finally a good movie to make up for that Harry Potter fiasco from last week, ugh! :-) Just got back home and got on the Internet and came across an article about a flamenco dancer named Clara Ramona. Did you know that she's half-filipino? I was talking to that cute waitress at El Patio yesterday. She asked me, "Miguelito, where are you from?" I jokingly replied, "I'm from Salvador." That's where she's from. "No really, where are you from?" "The Phillipines." "Aha! That's what I thought. My friend told me that filipinos also speak Spanish very well." "Yeah, there's a strong Spanish influence in the culture, language, cuisine, music etc. For example, in the filipino language kamusta? which means 'how are you?' is similar to spanish ¿cómo está?" Here's a blog entry about Manton de Manila (in Spanish). I don't know why I brought up this topic of the filipino-flamenco connection. Maybe I'm delirious from sleep-deprivation, so maybe I'll figure it out tomorrow when I wake up hopefully well-rested. Good night! Saturday with Miguelito December 10, 2005 It's 8:28am on Sunday as I type these words. Yes, despite the late night I am up early cuz I want to go to Furia Flamenca's performance at the Stadium Armory at 11:00am. And I wanted to squeeze in a little time to quickly finish this blog entry before leaving the house. 
December 10, 2005 11:29am (photo taken with my camera phone) So yesterday (Saturday), I started off by meeting my guitarist friend Marty at El Patio Argentine cafe for breakfast. Got there late (around 11:30am) so we opted for some lunch instead and got the Canelones de espinaca con salsa Blanca (Spinach Canneloni with Béchamel Sauce) with a cafe cortado. We caught up on each other's past week and talked about music-related stuff for a short while before getting in the car to go to American Dance Institute in time for the noon dance class. Fast forward to 8:30pm...Jason and I arrived late at the Gala Hispanic Theatre as dancers Jaime Coronado and Lou Elias were performing a soleá duet in the show Fuego Flamenco. The program featured the Spanish Dance Society for the first half and Edwin Aparicio and company for the second. I stuck around for a while after the show to greet some of the artists. Pictured below is Nélida Tirado with Kyoko. Nélida was one of the guest artists. She's an amazing dancer! Kyoko, who was here as member of the audience, is a former DC area flamenco who moved to Miami two years ago (read her interview). She's the webmaster for FloridaFlamenco.com 
Kyoko and Nélida. December 10, 2005 11:18pm Afterwards, Jason and I were starving (surprise, surprise!) so we went to Chadwick's restaurant near my house to grab a quick late night bite. As we left, I said to Jason, "Is this how we're going to end our Saturday night?" And right on cue, this girl walked by that we vaguely recognized. It was Frecia! Anyway, long story short, she answered our prayers: she invited us to a house party where she was the DJ. Turns out most of the guests were local dance teachers (salsa, hip hop etc, everything but flamenco) and students so we ended up seeing a few familiar faces. 
The house looks tiny from here. December 11, 2005 12:31am 
But it's surprisingly spacious! December 11, 2005 12:32am 
The music was mostly salsa with some merengue and bachata. December 11, 2005 12:51am You remember Natalia. She was at the Spanish Embassy Friday night. She used to study with Ana Martinez and she remembers me when I did a show with Ana Martinez's company from 8 years ago! She's from Logroño, the capital of the Rioja region near the Basque country. Interestingly she never studied flamenco until she came to the USA! 
Miguelito, Natalia Ardanza and Jason. December 11, 2005 1:11am This is Angélica, a dance student who's in Anna Menendez's Sunday evening class. She's one of the most animated dancers in the class. Anna even calls her the class cheerleader because she's so full of energy. She from Texas of Mexican descent. 
Angélica and Miguelito. December 11, 2005 1:21am This is Inna who has studied flamenco locally with Ziva and Aleksey Kulikov. She's from Belorussia. 
Inna and Jason. December 11, 2005 1:39am My thanks to Frecia. You made our night! OK, it's 9:20am, time for me to get dressed and out the door so I can arrive at Stadium Armory in time for Furia Flamenca's show at 11. Maybe I'll add more commentary when I get back. Ciao for now! Friday with Miguelito December 9, 2005 It's 9:22am on Saturday as I type these words. Started off the morning (Friday) meeting with Marsha for our important post-performance review now that we've already made our debut together, and talk about where, artistically, do we go from here? On my way over, I stopped by Starbucks to get my usual doppio espresso. When I got to her place she offered me some coffee which I gladly accepted--she makes great coffee! I don't know what it is, but it seems like her coffee was more potent than my espresso cuz as our discussion wore on, the caffeine effect was kicking in really hard. What did you slip in my cup Marsha? :-) Anyway, I was almost cracking up cuz my speech pattern was so jittery it sounded like I was about to cry. :-) Fast forward to 6:30pm...I met up Ginette in Arlington for a ride to our gig at the Spanish Embassy. With all the Friday night Georgetown traffic, we arrived at the door at around 6:50pm (we were supposed to go onstage at 7:20pm!). Not to worry. Sound was setup and Ginette already did her makeup. We were met at the door by a Spaniard dressed in military garb--like Guardia Civil--who escorted us to the conference room where the performance would take place. 
December 9, 2005 7:13pm The event was a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Miguel Cervantes' Don Quijote. Amidst the poetry readings and lectures we were the live entertainment. 
December 9, 2005 7:14pm It was a short program. The first set we did Sevillanas and Soleá por Bulerías. The second set, I played a guitar solo and Ginette finished off with a short bulería. 
December 9, 2005 8:10pm I saw quite a few familiar faces in the audience including some of my former coworkers from my previous life working in a public library. Then of course there were a few people that recognized me from my numerous local shows. In fact there was one guy that had seen my show at Cafe Citron this past Monday night! This is a pic of Ginette and I with Natalia Ardanza, the person who contacted us and arranged for us to perform here. Thank you Natalia. 
December 9, 2005 9:00pm It's kind of a technicality, but did you know that when you are inside the Spanish Embassy you are, legally speaking, in Spain? Anyway, you know me...after a show I'm almost always starving so we quickly packed up and went to El Puerto in Arlington where I got some Papa a la Huancaina and Lomo Saltado, yum! I love Peruvian food! These pics were taken using my camera phone. 
December 9, 2005 9:53pm  December 9, 2005 9:57pm It's 10:02am. Time to get dressed so I can get some Argentine breakfast at El Patio before going to dance class. Ciao for now! Thursday with Miguelito December 8, 2005 No pics today so you gotta actually read my blog! Taking a breather the past two days really helped. As much as I love flamenco, during the past few weeks, I got so much into focusing on the minutiae of the daily routine that I lost sight of the bigger picture: where have I been and where do I want to go and how am I going to get there? I know this sounds a little too philosophical but it's important to stop and smell the roses every now and then and review the road map of my life. I know I should be able to search within myself without leaving the house. But I like the serenity of the National Gallery. The couches in the gallery are comfortable and during the day you could linger in front of a painting for hours if you want and noone will bother you. And best of all, admission is free! Thursday was another one of those days where I had two gigs, one right after the other. The first one was a retirement party at a Spanish restaurant--basically I played background music for an hour. In addition to getting paid in cash, I got a delicious free meal and ended up staying later than I had planned which resulted in meeting my ride a little late. Oops! :-) Still, it's kind of cool in a way having to rush from one show to the next cuz it's makes me feel like I'm in demand--what am I saying? Actually I am in demand! :-) But wouldn't it suck to have to rush to a job that wasn't fun? Of course, there was a lot of traffic. Doesn't it seem like when you're really in a hurry, the traffic gets worse or maybe the stress of hurrying makes you perceive the traffic as getting worse? Ugh, never mind. I'm overanalyzing here! :-) So we got there a little late with only 20 minutes or so to get oriented, do a quick soundcheck and work out the program. We had three dancers, two guitarists and a singer. It was one of those corporate events in a huge ballroom of a hotel with a couple of hundred well-dressed lightly inebriated people in attendance. Our stage was against the wall. In front of the stage was a huge dance floor which of course our audience kept off of during our show. So they were like 100 feet away from the stage. It's kinda hard to get people to appreciate the performance when they're so far away. The stage itself was less than ideal. It was one of those modular platform types with metal folding legs with loose parts so everytime you stomped on it, it sounded a hammer hitting a metal toolbox full nails and screws. That's a pretty sound. Not! :-) We had no monitors so sometimes the palmeros couldn't hear the music well enough to stay in compás. Anyway the list goes on.... The point is that we're considered professionals and yeah, we did not have the ideal conditions for performing but as pros, we're still expected to overcome these obstacles and deliver a high-quality performance and that is what we did! Congrats to my fellow performers! We do our best with the factors we can control, and tune out everything else. An example of something we couldn't control: not having floor microphones. At one point during the a cappella section (aka solo de pies), I removed my lavalier microphone from my guitar and put it on the floor to pick up the sound of the dancer's footwork. The other guitarist picked up on my cue and did the same thing and it worked! I had never done this before, but because I was focused and in-the-moment, the idea came to me...[to be continued] It's 12:13am on Friday as I type these words. I'm feeling a little tired, but good--today's performances were fun and inspiring. But I just caught myself dozing off for a few seconds. So I really should go to bed now. I'll continue this entry later. Anyway, I've got an important meeting with a dancer in the morning so it's better that I'm well-rested. NOTE: Just a reminder, there's no flamenco show tonight (December 9th) at Cabanas--there's a private party that booked the whole restaurant. But the flamenco show will resume next Friday December 16th. Fortunately, one of my colleagues passed on a private gig to me for my Friday night. It'll be at the Spanish Embassy (in Georgetown)--my first time there. And I'll be performing with just one dancer. Although I have performed at the Spanish Ambassador's residence numerous times with the Spanish Dance Society, Ziva's Spanish Dance Ensemble and smaller impromptu groups made up of my dancer friends. I'll try to get some pics. Wednesday with Miguelito December 7, 2005 It's 11:03am on Thursday as I type these words. I won't be performing at Andalucía Restaurant tonight (Thursday), but instead I have a private gig. So I got something different to look forward to, yay! Yesterday (Wednesday) was particularly relaxing--man, I seriously needed a change of scenery! Got out of the house around noon and headed towards DC and visited some of my non-flamenco friends or at least the few of them that I could convince to meet me for coffee near their offices. Needless to say, I was well-caffeinated that afternoon! :-) I visited my brother at Ispirato in Arlington, grabbed a Jamba Juice (current favorite: Matcha Green Tea Blast with Immunity Boost) at Whole Foods and spent some time reading at the "library" of Barnes and Noble. I left my camera at home so no pics. Would you believe I left my phone at home too? Oh well, at first I was thinking about all the important calls I was possibly missing. Then ten seconds later, I just said to myself, "Screw it. Just enjoy the day!" So I did. :-) Around 6pm, I stopped by home to take a long nap, change clothes and went out to Adams-Morgan hoping to run into some friends but all the places I wanted to go were unbelievably dead: Rumba Cafe, Bossa, Habana Village, Meze etc. So I ended up as usual at the place that's always got something going on...yup, you guessed it..Cafe Citron! Checked out the salsa lessons downstairs (every Wednesday from 10pm-11pm) for awhile and went back up to the main floor voila! and ran into some friends. I wanted to go someplace different so we went down the street first to Lucky Bar (too mellow) then to Eighteenth Street Lounge where we finally settled in (ah yes, finally the right ambience). Unfortunately, I had to catch the last train home so I got on the metro just a little before midnight and arrived home shortly after that. OK so it wasn't an all-nighter, but the short time spent in the laid-back ambience of Eighteenth Street Lounge with my friends was still good to way to end the evening. Here are some pics from a previous night with my non-flamenco friends. Ugh, just checked my phone: I got a serious backlog of missed calls and voicemails to listen to. Ciao for now! Smithsonian December 6, 2005 It's 8:16am on Wednesday as I type these words. Yeah I needed to take a breather after such a busy week last week. Yesterday, I said I would lose myself in the Smithsonian and I did! Started off wandering through the American History museum. The Natural History museum was next door so I went in there too. Next to that was the National Gallery of Art, West Wing. This is where I really lost myself...it's literally a maze. 
East entrance to the National Gallery of Art, West Wing. December 6, 2005 1:06pm I spent like three hours looking at paintings and other kinds of visual art. Not that I'm knowledgable about all this stuff like my brother Kevin who's a painter himself. Just like music, you don't have to know about the mechanics or aesthetic theory behind how the paintings were created. They either touch you emotionally or they don't. 
West Sculpture Hall. December 6, 2005 2:10pm Being a performer myself, I can appreciate the pleasure of the creative process. Sometimes as I gaze at a painting I try to imagine what was going on in the mind of the painter as he made each gesture with his brush. I can still remember those many times as a child (and as an adult) when I would lose myself in the enjoyment of drawing pictures. On my summer breaks in college, I worked as a day camp counselor for children ages 5 through 12--hence my confidence and skill in giving school presentations. Anyway, I was the arts and crafts specialist and my fellow counselors loved it cuz when the kids were getting too rowdy they knew they could count on me to quiet down the kids when I'd give the them an art activity. 
View from the Mall side of the National Gallery of Art. December 6, 2005 4:35pm There's something deeply satisfying in taking something inside of your mind, whether it's a melody, a visual idea, poetic phrase or whatever and bringing it out into the physical world so that you can share it with others. I have the day off today too. No gig tonight. Yay! Another day for a breather. Ciao for now. Cafe Citron December 5, 2005 It's 8:37am on Tuesday as I type these words. Last week was a blast but I was sooo busy doing my flamenco gigs, rehearsing, keeping up the site--basically working non-stop. So, anyway, I woke up this morning and went straight to the computer to upload pics from last night as usual. But halfway through the work, I felt this sudden urge to just turn off the computer and get out of the house right now. Today is officially Miguelito appreciation day. :-) Not to worry, I just need to take a breather--preferably in Cancun! Maybe I'll spend the day getting lost in the Smithsonian and act like a tourist. :-) Anyway, here are the few pics from last night which was a great night cuz we had a lively group of Andalucians (from Málaga, Granada and Sevilla) all sitting at the front table giving us palmas, jaleo and even dancing Sevillanas and rumba! Loved it! OK, I better stop writing now. Signing off. See you tomorrow! 
December 5, 2005 7:52pm 
December 5, 2005 8:32pm (photo by Keith) 
My guitar is made by Valeriano Bernal. December 5, 2005 8:40pm (photo by Keith)
Photos taken with the Olympus Stylus 300 Digital Camera
Text and original images ©1996-2013 by . Please do not republish content from this website, including text and photos, in whole or part without prior written permission. |
|
