November 2009
This was a month where DCDC Saturdays were followed immediately by Jimmy's social, which helped to discourage me from taking a trip to NYC. Of course, I've kept making excuses after excuses. I have no idea when I'll get around to visiting - perhaps never at this rate.
Nov 2. CG. I was there from around 9:40 to well past midnight for mere 4 dances. Bruno seemed to have made up for the lack of music I did not enjoy last week. The Chinita song was played once again. The night ended with talking about the state of affairs with J&T.
One month of waiting is stretching to two months with no obvious end in sight. DS is being highly frustrating, missing his own deadlines repeatedly.
Nov 7. TS birthday dinner preceded a visit to a Timba social at Bethesda late. I took several wrong turns on the way, and by the time of my arrival it was essentially a private party. TS, JY, LR, BC as well as Julie, Christian, Hans and Naj(?) made up the final Bethesda group from a larger dinner group.
Watching old television shows is diverting - probably too much so.
Nov 9. CG. DCSM night. There were more people to dance with than usual. It was LV's first visit to CG apparently. Lisa-lookalike again - she recognized me first. Despite missing dances with likes of LR, this was one of the most enjoyable CG night - best in a long time especially for On1.
After all I have more or less run out of old movies.
Nov 14 -. DCDC. Somewhat light night. I opted out of B-day dance - I just couldn't bring myself to join.
Reading on the other hand is something I seem to have lost interest in for a time being. I still haven't finished 2666.
Nov 17. BD. The turnout felt light in the beginning but it filled up nicely. Two dances with MB to start off - was surprised to see her there. Sylvia. Carl.
DC scene is large enough that it can be difficult to figure out if someone is new to the scene or had been out of circulation or had been running in different social circles.
Nov 21. Spates Hall. Interesting security check-in. Nice space. Fast floor. Many people. Couples crowd in large part. Many non-dancers present (by non-dancers I include people with zero experience). Running out of partners to ask for dance was something of an issue - all too common in past few months. Manuel spoke with mic too far away - not a particularly effective MC.
SF. I have more time than ever to spend my free time there. Ugh.
Nov 23. CG. Very rainy. Very difficult driving condition - lane markers nearly invisible. No TS - toe trouble. No JY either. JHU chitchat with A/S. Sylvia for 1 1/2 dance once again. There were 2 others with 2 dances - something of a rarity outside DCDC. About a third of the songs played tonight were used at BD last week by DJ Sonero substituting for Bruno.
Facebook too. Here, however, I avoid revealing yet I do much digging. I think I might be doing myself a favor by not making many facebook friends because it can oh so easily become an enormous time sink.
Nov 28. DCDC. Heavy turnout due to DCSM. Wet mirrors. I thought I was going to suffocate after first few dances. Betto from NC (not Philly) was there - LV was right and I was wrong. Likeable music.
To act or wait, that is the question. Inaction is so easy, but it does make certain sense.
Trick or treat
October 31, 2009
It was supposed to be a treat to myself for an uninspiring month of October.
The event schedule showed early evening show from 7:30 to 8:30 PM and late evening show from 9 to 10:30 PM. I thought catching the late show might be fine but not essential. Since I left home at 8:30, I knew I would only catch the end of the late show only if there was no problem with my driving unless the shows started late.
The drive was more expensive than I would have liked. There was the 200+ mile roundtrip to consider. I thought avoiding Baltimore Harbor Tunnel would save toll fee, but I ended up on Fort McHenry Tunnel, which had the same toll fee ($2 each way). I also had not counted on toll on route 95 northbound in Maryland north of Baltimore ($5) although I had remembered toll on route 95 in Delaware ($4 each way). So paying toll alone cost $17 for this trip. The night pass was $30.
Incidentally I had considered going to New York this weekend instead of Philadelphia. Remind me not to drive. Add more toll fee – Delaware Memorial Bridge ($3 return), New Jersey Turnpike (probably $8 each way or more), and Holland or Lincoln Tunnel ($6 to Manhattan). Take the bus (it’s cheaper. e.g. Chinatown buses, Bolt Bus or even Greyhound) or the train (most comfortable) instead. Anyway, it is a pain to visit NYC for a day trip living in the suburbs.
Google map erroneously stated that I should take exit 6 towards Ridley Park off route 95 to get to the Ramada at Philadelphia airpot. It was exit 8. I took exit 6 then got back on before getting lost after taking exit 7 and ending up on Macdade Blvd and Fairview Rd. Fortunately I was able to get instructions to get to the Ramada Inn via local routes thanks to a couple of bystanders by some fast food eatery. I managed to find parking by 10:40 PM.
There were many DC folks there including Tanya, Tommy, Brandon, Julie, Earl, Renzo, Josh, Janet as well as some people whose names I caught via meetup or facebook photos (e.g. Masahiko from Station 9 fiasco, Adrienne, Masha) and a few others including some I dance well with in DC. There were also some Philly people I knew from other connections. Unfortunately as the evening progressed, it became evident that there were very few Philly natives, whom I could develop decent dance chemistry.
So the highlights ended up being dancing with “big-name” instructor-performer types. Two highlights were Vanda and Burju – I had never danced with either before, and I liked dances with both – I liked the songs too although perhaps Tlahuanaco is not without its difficulties (no complaint about Rumbon Melon). I don’t think I pushed them much – not that I feel particularly competent especially as of late. Magna was there, but I failed to spot her until very late. I thought about asking her for a dance, but I opted out after seeing her looking concerned about some leg injury. Hopefully I’ll find her without ailments one of these days. So what about others “big-name” followers? The fact that I am wondering about this is a little disconcerting because there wasn’t any “new” follower who I had strong favorable impression aside from Vanda and Burju. Was Griselle Ponce or Liz Lira there? If so, did I dance with either of them? If so, was our dance chemistry so poor that I found them unremarkable? For whatever its worth, the number of “big-name” leaders I saw were spotty too – Nuno, MarioB and Cristian Oviedo were there, but I did not see Shaka or Victor and failed to spot Al Espinoza assuming he was there.
I think this might have been the first time I have heard two Bachata followed by one or more Merengue at a Salsa congress.
Songs played included Ana Y Saoco (Angel Canales), Hay Craneo (Tito Rodriguez), Hong Kong Mambo (Tito Puente – remix), Cuando Te Vea (Tito Puente), Tlahuanaco (Alfredo Linares), Picadillo (Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri), Tres Dias De Carnaval (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco), Mambo Mongo (Mongo Santamaria), Nabori (Cheo Feliciano), Alafia (Joe Cuba Sextet), Oyelo (Johnny Colon), Lady (Orquesta Palabra), Calle Luna Calle Sol (Willie Colon), Rumbon Melon (Joe Pastrana) among others.
The Halloween costume contest had five finalists – Roman Legionnaire, Urkel, Burju (as Madonna?), Hooters waitress (worn by a guy) and a pair of elderly 60s/70s partygoers. The first three had a dance-off for the top 3 prize runoff, won ultimately by Urkel.
I may have danced only once during the last hour or so. Around 1:30 or 2 or so, I thought I should leave by 3 or so, but I ended up lingering until 3:30. Only when I turned the car engine on I realized that it would have been 4:30 AM without the end of the daylight savings hour.
Drive back was dark and rainy. It was very difficult to see the road markings, and there were more than usual share of nutty drivers. On a section of the empty road with four lanes, I was on the right lane and saw a slow moving car in the second from right lane. I decided to pass it from its left-side as I ought to, but this car all of sudden for no reason decided to change lane to left as well just as I was about to pass it. Bloody hell! I had to move one more lane to avoid hitting this car before hitting the klaxon in irritation. Later in the drive on a three-lane road, I found a car stopped dead in the middle lane with its lights on but without any hazard lights. Stopping in the breakdown lane is dangerous enough. What are these people thinking?
Treat it wasn’t.
It was supposed to be a treat to myself for an uninspiring month of October.
The event schedule showed early evening show from 7:30 to 8:30 PM and late evening show from 9 to 10:30 PM. I thought catching the late show might be fine but not essential. Since I left home at 8:30, I knew I would only catch the end of the late show only if there was no problem with my driving unless the shows started late.
The drive was more expensive than I would have liked. There was the 200+ mile roundtrip to consider. I thought avoiding Baltimore Harbor Tunnel would save toll fee, but I ended up on Fort McHenry Tunnel, which had the same toll fee ($2 each way). I also had not counted on toll on route 95 northbound in Maryland north of Baltimore ($5) although I had remembered toll on route 95 in Delaware ($4 each way). So paying toll alone cost $17 for this trip. The night pass was $30.
Incidentally I had considered going to New York this weekend instead of Philadelphia. Remind me not to drive. Add more toll fee – Delaware Memorial Bridge ($3 return), New Jersey Turnpike (probably $8 each way or more), and Holland or Lincoln Tunnel ($6 to Manhattan). Take the bus (it’s cheaper. e.g. Chinatown buses, Bolt Bus or even Greyhound) or the train (most comfortable) instead. Anyway, it is a pain to visit NYC for a day trip living in the suburbs.
Google map erroneously stated that I should take exit 6 towards Ridley Park off route 95 to get to the Ramada at Philadelphia airpot. It was exit 8. I took exit 6 then got back on before getting lost after taking exit 7 and ending up on Macdade Blvd and Fairview Rd. Fortunately I was able to get instructions to get to the Ramada Inn via local routes thanks to a couple of bystanders by some fast food eatery. I managed to find parking by 10:40 PM.
There were many DC folks there including Tanya, Tommy, Brandon, Julie, Earl, Renzo, Josh, Janet as well as some people whose names I caught via meetup or facebook photos (e.g. Masahiko from Station 9 fiasco, Adrienne, Masha) and a few others including some I dance well with in DC. There were also some Philly people I knew from other connections. Unfortunately as the evening progressed, it became evident that there were very few Philly natives, whom I could develop decent dance chemistry.
So the highlights ended up being dancing with “big-name” instructor-performer types. Two highlights were Vanda and Burju – I had never danced with either before, and I liked dances with both – I liked the songs too although perhaps Tlahuanaco is not without its difficulties (no complaint about Rumbon Melon). I don’t think I pushed them much – not that I feel particularly competent especially as of late. Magna was there, but I failed to spot her until very late. I thought about asking her for a dance, but I opted out after seeing her looking concerned about some leg injury. Hopefully I’ll find her without ailments one of these days. So what about others “big-name” followers? The fact that I am wondering about this is a little disconcerting because there wasn’t any “new” follower who I had strong favorable impression aside from Vanda and Burju. Was Griselle Ponce or Liz Lira there? If so, did I dance with either of them? If so, was our dance chemistry so poor that I found them unremarkable? For whatever its worth, the number of “big-name” leaders I saw were spotty too – Nuno, MarioB and Cristian Oviedo were there, but I did not see Shaka or Victor and failed to spot Al Espinoza assuming he was there.
I think this might have been the first time I have heard two Bachata followed by one or more Merengue at a Salsa congress.
Songs played included Ana Y Saoco (Angel Canales), Hay Craneo (Tito Rodriguez), Hong Kong Mambo (Tito Puente – remix), Cuando Te Vea (Tito Puente), Tlahuanaco (Alfredo Linares), Picadillo (Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri), Tres Dias De Carnaval (Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco), Mambo Mongo (Mongo Santamaria), Nabori (Cheo Feliciano), Alafia (Joe Cuba Sextet), Oyelo (Johnny Colon), Lady (Orquesta Palabra), Calle Luna Calle Sol (Willie Colon), Rumbon Melon (Joe Pastrana) among others.
The Halloween costume contest had five finalists – Roman Legionnaire, Urkel, Burju (as Madonna?), Hooters waitress (worn by a guy) and a pair of elderly 60s/70s partygoers. The first three had a dance-off for the top 3 prize runoff, won ultimately by Urkel.
I may have danced only once during the last hour or so. Around 1:30 or 2 or so, I thought I should leave by 3 or so, but I ended up lingering until 3:30. Only when I turned the car engine on I realized that it would have been 4:30 AM without the end of the daylight savings hour.
Drive back was dark and rainy. It was very difficult to see the road markings, and there were more than usual share of nutty drivers. On a section of the empty road with four lanes, I was on the right lane and saw a slow moving car in the second from right lane. I decided to pass it from its left-side as I ought to, but this car all of sudden for no reason decided to change lane to left as well just as I was about to pass it. Bloody hell! I had to move one more lane to avoid hitting this car before hitting the klaxon in irritation. Later in the drive on a three-lane road, I found a car stopped dead in the middle lane with its lights on but without any hazard lights. Stopping in the breakdown lane is dangerous enough. What are these people thinking?
Treat it wasn’t.
Unending Epilogue 7
October 2009
Slow month overall. Feeling somewhat stuck. Poor month for Salsa.
Oct 5 Mon. Clarendon Grill. Uncharacteristically quiet. Very few dances, good or not.
Oct 6 Tue. Barking Dog. Better night. DJ was Bruno for second night in a row. I came up with 25/25/25/25 rule for Bruno – 25% good, 25% okay, 25% yucky, 25% non-Salsa.
Oct 10 Sat. DC Dance Collective. DJs were EricB and Dola. One of the more notable familiar song was Del Agua Brava. Very few people showed up – probably the TSR/SOS Black and Red Night can be blamed. Introduced to Haleh
Oct 12 Mon. Clarendon Grill. Bruno might have played that Chinita song for third night in a row. Formally met Christian (nice dance with Luz to No Critiques), Tega, Royston (usually wears a cap) and Lorenzo.
Oct 14 Wed. I tried to go to Station 9. It was closed. I took a look at Pure nearby, but gave up after hearing predictable Marc Anthony and no obvious signs of dancers.
Oct 15 Thu. Bambule. DJ was Neo. Quiet night. Earl blamed the rain. Maybe a little over one hour of dancing – it wasn’t too bad all things considered. Mari was there.
Oct 18 Sun. Lucky Strikes. DJ was Renzo. It was about expected. I was introduced to Julie while chatting with Tanya and Renzo. Also Cecelia.
Oct 21 Wed. Another bad luck with Station 9 – the Salsa night was cancelled for something else (I don’t know what). Pure was playing Oscar D’Leon – we didn’t stay (chatted briefly with Masahiko and friend).
Oct 23 Fri. The Salsa Room. DJs were Hercules and Georgie. Hercules played popular standards (Babarabatiri, Chango Ta Beni, Preparen Candela (WS), Anacaona, Hong Kong Mambo, Rebelion, El Que Se Fue (GSR), Merecumbe (JC)) or so-so not-great but generally not horrible tunes. Hercules also played either Babarabatiri or Chango Ta Beni twice. Georgie played more varied selection (Los Salseros Se Van, popular recent version of Cao Cao Mani Picao, the Chinita song, Ponme El Alcolado Juana were familiar tunes). This probably was a more popular night than usual because of Orlando Machuca’s birthday.
Oct 24 Sat. DC Dance Collective. DJs were EricB and Steve Martin. EricB used Kako Y Totico again. Also was it second or third La Llave in a row with normal crowd? Familiar songs from SM included La Agonia and Usted Abuso. With a bigger crowd, EricB decided to go obscure as well, so Steve wins my vote by a nose. I think I enjoy Steve’s selections more when there are few people left. The heat and humidity at DCDC with large crowd is not enjoyable – a big minus. Formally met Manuel.
Oct 26 Mon. Clarendon Grill. DJ Bruno started his Merengue (x2) and Bachata (x2) considerably earlier than usual. Apparently this was because of the Halloween costume contest, which nearly 40 people entered. Despite the unexpected change in musical program, I managed to dance a few times including once with someone named Jenny, whom I never seen before. There were many people present, but many quickly exited during or after the contest. There was another b-day dance for Orlando Machuca as well. Thus I managed not to dance with many people I probably would have danced under normal circumstances – this sort of thing seemed to happen often this month. A new learned name is Olga. Oh yeah – and that Chinita song again was played (Mario Ortiz All-Star Band). One thing though – smaller number of total number of songs seemed to have meant smaller proportion of songs I found awful by DJ Bruno (i.e. the 25% rule did not apply tonight).
When I saw the calender and saw that there were five weekends and that the second Saturday DCDC social had the TSR/SOS Black and Red night, I knew that this was going to be a weak month. Thus I took the time to check out the venues other than Clarendon Grill and Barking Dog. It wasn’t as thorough as I had hoped (mainly because of the Station 9 fiasco), but I think I now have enough to give a DC summary. See below – I may update this in the future.
--
Weekly nights of note
Mondays
Clarendon Grill 1101 N. Highland St. Arlington VA
Beginner 7-8 PM, Intermediate 8-9 PM
Instructor – Keith Givens / DJ – Bruno
Music – Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Cha Cha
Open dancing 9 PM-1 AM (typically ends 12:30 AM)
Entry: $5
Free Parking: Easy (treet parking + free underground garage on Highland St)
Metro: Excellent / Clarendon
Clarendon Grill is the best On2 weekly spot in DC. Most On2 dancers can dance On1, but for people who dance On1 only, other venues are just as good and possibly better. DJ Bruno’s shtick is 2 Merengue and 2 Bachata in a row at 10 PM. Most On2 dancers time their arrival to avoid this 10 PM “Salsa break” for whatever its worth. Dancing extends to pockets of concrete floor above small main wood floor.
Lucky Bar 1225 Conneticut Ave. Washington DC
Free Salsa class 8-9 PM.
Instructor – Avram / DJ – Silenzio
Open dancing 9 PM-late
Entry: free
Metro: Excellent or Good / Dupont Circle or Farragut North or Farragut West
Free Parking: Difficult (probably)
I hear this place can get crowded. I never went.
Tuesdays
Barking Dog 4723 Elm St. Bethesda MD
Beginner 7-8 PM, Advanced Beginner 8-9 PM
Instructor – Michelle Reyes / DJ – rotates (includes El Sonero, El Oso Negro, Bruno, Neo)
Open dancing 9 PM-midnight
Music – Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Cha Cha
Entry: $5 cover, $10 with lessons
Free Parking: Easy-Moderate
Metro: Good / Bethesda
This is the other weekly On2 spot. It’s a good deal for On1 dancers too. Tile floor surrounds a fairly small central wood floor and is also used by many dancers. Perhaps because the dancing is done on second floor, it can get somewhat warm – although not too bad.
e-Citie 8300 Tyco Road Tysons Corner VA
Never visited this place. It might be better than Café Salsa in Alexandria. I don’t know.
Wednesday
Station 9 1438 U Street NW Washington DC
8:30-9PM Salsa, 9-9:45PM Bachata
Instructor – Earl Rush, Psyon / Salsa; Lee “El Gringuito” / Bachata
DJ – Lee “El Gringuito” – Bachata, Salsa Romantica, Salsaton, Salsa hits, Salsa Vieja, Merengue, Cha Cha
Guest DJs on special nights – Hard Salsa, Mambo, Cha Cha
Entry: $10 for lessons, for party $10 men, $5 women
Parking: Difficult
Metro: Good / U Street
The venue seemed fairly nice, but I never danced here despite attempting to get in 3 different times. Lee supposedly plays more Romantica than anyone else in DC. My understanding is that this is the best option for Weds.
Pure Lounge 1326 U Street NW Washington DC
This is very close to Station 9. I took a peek twice but did not go in.
Ozio Restaurant & Lounge 1813 M St NW Washington DC
Lesson 8-9:30 PM
Instructor / DJ Edgar “The Elite Rumbero”
Music – Salsa, Bachata, Merengue and much more
Open dancing to late (closes 2 AM)
Entry: $8 for lessons, free entry
Metro: Exellent or Good / Dupont Circle or Farragut North or Farragut West
Free Parking: I’m guessing difficult
The venue location is central so it might be worth checking.
Umberto’s Night Club 11230 Grandview Ave Wheaton MD
It exists and still going at the moment. No personal experience.
Thursday
Bambule 5225 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington DC
7-9:30 PM Instructor – Earl Rush
Open dance to midnight or so?
Entry: $10 for lessons, $8 entry
Free Parking: Easy-Moderate
Metro: Excellent / Friendship Heights
I hear this place is quite hit-and-miss. Floor is nice and spacious, and venue is convenient for cars or public transit. It might get better – or not. [updated Oct 30. This venue no longer runs Salsa nights.]
Sunday
Lucky Strikes 701 7th Street (second floor) NW Washington DC
Lessons 8-9 PM
Open dancing to around midnight
Instructor: Earl Rush and guests
Entry: $10 for lessons, free entry
Free Parking: Moderate
Metro: Excellent / Chinatown
Floor is nice and spacious, and venue location is convenient. Decent hangout.
--
The venues listed below have multiple Salsa nights with open dancing until as late as 2 AM.
Wednesday to Saturday
Habana Village 1834 Columbia Road NW Washington DC
Beginner, Intermediate/Advanced 7:15-9 PM
Instructor (Wed, Sat) – Zulma, Victor, Victoria
Instructor (Thu, Fri) – Leon, Ruth, Bob, Henry, Dupree
DJ – Azucar, Jim “El Duro”
Music – Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Timba, other
Entry: $10 lessons
Parking: Difficult
Metro: Good / Woodley Park Adams Morgan
I hear it can get crowded here. I hear it’s a fun place to hang out.
Thursday to Saturday
The Salsa Room
2619 Columbia Pike Arlington VA
Instructor - Orlando Machuca (On1, Thu), Saoco (Cuban, Fri), Karen Aguilar (Sat)
DJ – Hercules and guests
Music - Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Reggaeton
Free Parking: Easy-Moderate
Metro: Not Recommended / Clarendon
This place has the biggest floor of all the regular venues. It is dark and cavernous with strong AC. The resident DJ Hercules apparently tends to overplay some artists. The one time I paid careful attention to the DJ, I noted that Hercules used one album 3 times in a single night including one song twice in a span of less than 2 hours.
--
Notable regular non-weekly events
second and fourth Saturdays
DC Dance Collective 4908 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington DC
9-10 PM On1 and On2 lessons
Open dancing 10 PM to 2 AM
Instructor – Tommy Smith and Jimmy Yoon
DJ – rotating DJ (includes EricB, Steve Martin, Dola, Bruno, Neo, Renzo, others)
Free Parking: Easy
Metro: Good / Friendship Heights – Tenleytown-AU
This is a social not a club. The music here tends to be highbrow and obscure. It's also a regular On2 hangout. Weak AC is a big negative as it is usually hot and humid when it’s crowded.
Other venues I have some knowledge of include National Harbor (new developmental area with poor public transit and costly parking)
There is fair number of irregular events, but many of these are not well established. The best bets are SOS special events hosted by Earl Rush about half dozen times a year and Clavekazi socials hosted by Shaka Brown. With Shaka now living in Miami, I’m not sure what the fate of Clavekazi socials will be, however. Another reasonable bet is Scene Magazine Release parties hosted by Renzo, which presumably will go on as long as that magazine stays alive.
Finally Manuel seems to be trying to get a (monthly?) social established on Saturdays with DJ Andy, who I was told by one source was the top DJ in DC long time ago (until he and his old business partner broke up). I haven’t been to the venue, but it looks nice (see picture). Location is okay and parking looks good. It’s not particularly close to Metro (nearest stop is Clarendon). Good DJ + good floor means = high potential and worth checking out. Next night is on Nov 21.
Spates Hall Community Club at Fort Myers Base
214 McNair Road Arlington VA
9 PM to 1 AM
Meanwhile I’m going to try to turn this poor October around by visiting Philadelphia Salsafest on Oct 31 (Saturday only for me).
Slow month overall. Feeling somewhat stuck. Poor month for Salsa.
Oct 5 Mon. Clarendon Grill. Uncharacteristically quiet. Very few dances, good or not.
Oct 6 Tue. Barking Dog. Better night. DJ was Bruno for second night in a row. I came up with 25/25/25/25 rule for Bruno – 25% good, 25% okay, 25% yucky, 25% non-Salsa.
Oct 10 Sat. DC Dance Collective. DJs were EricB and Dola. One of the more notable familiar song was Del Agua Brava. Very few people showed up – probably the TSR/SOS Black and Red Night can be blamed. Introduced to Haleh
Oct 12 Mon. Clarendon Grill. Bruno might have played that Chinita song for third night in a row. Formally met Christian (nice dance with Luz to No Critiques), Tega, Royston (usually wears a cap) and Lorenzo.
Oct 14 Wed. I tried to go to Station 9. It was closed. I took a look at Pure nearby, but gave up after hearing predictable Marc Anthony and no obvious signs of dancers.
Oct 15 Thu. Bambule. DJ was Neo. Quiet night. Earl blamed the rain. Maybe a little over one hour of dancing – it wasn’t too bad all things considered. Mari was there.
Oct 18 Sun. Lucky Strikes. DJ was Renzo. It was about expected. I was introduced to Julie while chatting with Tanya and Renzo. Also Cecelia.
Oct 21 Wed. Another bad luck with Station 9 – the Salsa night was cancelled for something else (I don’t know what). Pure was playing Oscar D’Leon – we didn’t stay (chatted briefly with Masahiko and friend).
Oct 23 Fri. The Salsa Room. DJs were Hercules and Georgie. Hercules played popular standards (Babarabatiri, Chango Ta Beni, Preparen Candela (WS), Anacaona, Hong Kong Mambo, Rebelion, El Que Se Fue (GSR), Merecumbe (JC)) or so-so not-great but generally not horrible tunes. Hercules also played either Babarabatiri or Chango Ta Beni twice. Georgie played more varied selection (Los Salseros Se Van, popular recent version of Cao Cao Mani Picao, the Chinita song, Ponme El Alcolado Juana were familiar tunes). This probably was a more popular night than usual because of Orlando Machuca’s birthday.
Oct 24 Sat. DC Dance Collective. DJs were EricB and Steve Martin. EricB used Kako Y Totico again. Also was it second or third La Llave in a row with normal crowd? Familiar songs from SM included La Agonia and Usted Abuso. With a bigger crowd, EricB decided to go obscure as well, so Steve wins my vote by a nose. I think I enjoy Steve’s selections more when there are few people left. The heat and humidity at DCDC with large crowd is not enjoyable – a big minus. Formally met Manuel.
Oct 26 Mon. Clarendon Grill. DJ Bruno started his Merengue (x2) and Bachata (x2) considerably earlier than usual. Apparently this was because of the Halloween costume contest, which nearly 40 people entered. Despite the unexpected change in musical program, I managed to dance a few times including once with someone named Jenny, whom I never seen before. There were many people present, but many quickly exited during or after the contest. There was another b-day dance for Orlando Machuca as well. Thus I managed not to dance with many people I probably would have danced under normal circumstances – this sort of thing seemed to happen often this month. A new learned name is Olga. Oh yeah – and that Chinita song again was played (Mario Ortiz All-Star Band). One thing though – smaller number of total number of songs seemed to have meant smaller proportion of songs I found awful by DJ Bruno (i.e. the 25% rule did not apply tonight).
When I saw the calender and saw that there were five weekends and that the second Saturday DCDC social had the TSR/SOS Black and Red night, I knew that this was going to be a weak month. Thus I took the time to check out the venues other than Clarendon Grill and Barking Dog. It wasn’t as thorough as I had hoped (mainly because of the Station 9 fiasco), but I think I now have enough to give a DC summary. See below – I may update this in the future.
--
Weekly nights of note
Mondays
Clarendon Grill 1101 N. Highland St. Arlington VA
Beginner 7-8 PM, Intermediate 8-9 PM
Instructor – Keith Givens / DJ – Bruno
Music – Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Cha Cha
Open dancing 9 PM-1 AM (typically ends 12:30 AM)
Entry: $5
Free Parking: Easy (treet parking + free underground garage on Highland St)
Metro: Excellent / Clarendon
Clarendon Grill is the best On2 weekly spot in DC. Most On2 dancers can dance On1, but for people who dance On1 only, other venues are just as good and possibly better. DJ Bruno’s shtick is 2 Merengue and 2 Bachata in a row at 10 PM. Most On2 dancers time their arrival to avoid this 10 PM “Salsa break” for whatever its worth. Dancing extends to pockets of concrete floor above small main wood floor.
Lucky Bar 1225 Conneticut Ave. Washington DC
Free Salsa class 8-9 PM.
Instructor – Avram / DJ – Silenzio
Open dancing 9 PM-late
Entry: free
Metro: Excellent or Good / Dupont Circle or Farragut North or Farragut West
Free Parking: Difficult (probably)
I hear this place can get crowded. I never went.
Tuesdays
Barking Dog 4723 Elm St. Bethesda MD
Beginner 7-8 PM, Advanced Beginner 8-9 PM
Instructor – Michelle Reyes / DJ – rotates (includes El Sonero, El Oso Negro, Bruno, Neo)
Open dancing 9 PM-midnight
Music – Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Cha Cha
Entry: $5 cover, $10 with lessons
Free Parking: Easy-Moderate
Metro: Good / Bethesda
This is the other weekly On2 spot. It’s a good deal for On1 dancers too. Tile floor surrounds a fairly small central wood floor and is also used by many dancers. Perhaps because the dancing is done on second floor, it can get somewhat warm – although not too bad.
e-Citie 8300 Tyco Road Tysons Corner VA
Never visited this place. It might be better than Café Salsa in Alexandria. I don’t know.
Wednesday
Station 9 1438 U Street NW Washington DC
8:30-9PM Salsa, 9-9:45PM Bachata
Instructor – Earl Rush, Psyon / Salsa; Lee “El Gringuito” / Bachata
DJ – Lee “El Gringuito” – Bachata, Salsa Romantica, Salsaton, Salsa hits, Salsa Vieja, Merengue, Cha Cha
Guest DJs on special nights – Hard Salsa, Mambo, Cha Cha
Entry: $10 for lessons, for party $10 men, $5 women
Parking: Difficult
Metro: Good / U Street
The venue seemed fairly nice, but I never danced here despite attempting to get in 3 different times. Lee supposedly plays more Romantica than anyone else in DC. My understanding is that this is the best option for Weds.
Pure Lounge 1326 U Street NW Washington DC
This is very close to Station 9. I took a peek twice but did not go in.
Ozio Restaurant & Lounge 1813 M St NW Washington DC
Lesson 8-9:30 PM
Instructor / DJ Edgar “The Elite Rumbero”
Music – Salsa, Bachata, Merengue and much more
Open dancing to late (closes 2 AM)
Entry: $8 for lessons, free entry
Metro: Exellent or Good / Dupont Circle or Farragut North or Farragut West
Free Parking: I’m guessing difficult
The venue location is central so it might be worth checking.
Umberto’s Night Club 11230 Grandview Ave Wheaton MD
It exists and still going at the moment. No personal experience.
Thursday
7-9:30 PM Instructor – Earl Rush
Open dance to midnight or so?
Entry: $10 for lessons, $8 entry
Free Parking: Easy-Moderate
Metro: Excellent / Friendship Heights
I hear this place is quite hit-and-miss. Floor is nice and spacious, and venue is convenient for cars or public transit. It might get better – or not. [updated Oct 30. This venue no longer runs Salsa nights.]
Sunday
Lucky Strikes 701 7th Street (second floor) NW Washington DC
Lessons 8-9 PM
Open dancing to around midnight
Instructor: Earl Rush and guests
Entry: $10 for lessons, free entry
Free Parking: Moderate
Metro: Excellent / Chinatown
Floor is nice and spacious, and venue location is convenient. Decent hangout.
--
The venues listed below have multiple Salsa nights with open dancing until as late as 2 AM.
Wednesday to Saturday
Habana Village 1834 Columbia Road NW Washington DC
Beginner, Intermediate/Advanced 7:15-9 PM
Instructor (Wed, Sat) – Zulma, Victor, Victoria
Instructor (Thu, Fri) – Leon, Ruth, Bob, Henry, Dupree
DJ – Azucar, Jim “El Duro”
Music – Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Timba, other
Entry: $10 lessons
Parking: Difficult
Metro: Good / Woodley Park Adams Morgan
I hear it can get crowded here. I hear it’s a fun place to hang out.
Thursday to Saturday
The Salsa Room
2619 Columbia Pike Arlington VA
Instructor - Orlando Machuca (On1, Thu), Saoco (Cuban, Fri), Karen Aguilar (Sat)
DJ – Hercules and guests
Music - Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Reggaeton
Free Parking: Easy-Moderate
Metro: Not Recommended / Clarendon
This place has the biggest floor of all the regular venues. It is dark and cavernous with strong AC. The resident DJ Hercules apparently tends to overplay some artists. The one time I paid careful attention to the DJ, I noted that Hercules used one album 3 times in a single night including one song twice in a span of less than 2 hours.
--
Notable regular non-weekly events
second and fourth Saturdays
DC Dance Collective 4908 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington DC
9-10 PM On1 and On2 lessons
Open dancing 10 PM to 2 AM
Instructor – Tommy Smith and Jimmy Yoon
DJ – rotating DJ (includes EricB, Steve Martin, Dola, Bruno, Neo, Renzo, others)
Free Parking: Easy
Metro: Good / Friendship Heights – Tenleytown-AU
This is a social not a club. The music here tends to be highbrow and obscure. It's also a regular On2 hangout. Weak AC is a big negative as it is usually hot and humid when it’s crowded.
Other venues I have some knowledge of include National Harbor (new developmental area with poor public transit and costly parking)
There is fair number of irregular events, but many of these are not well established. The best bets are SOS special events hosted by Earl Rush about half dozen times a year and Clavekazi socials hosted by Shaka Brown. With Shaka now living in Miami, I’m not sure what the fate of Clavekazi socials will be, however. Another reasonable bet is Scene Magazine Release parties hosted by Renzo, which presumably will go on as long as that magazine stays alive.
Finally Manuel seems to be trying to get a (monthly?) social established on Saturdays with DJ Andy, who I was told by one source was the top DJ in DC long time ago (until he and his old business partner broke up). I haven’t been to the venue, but it looks nice (see picture). Location is okay and parking looks good. It’s not particularly close to Metro (nearest stop is Clarendon). Good DJ + good floor means = high potential and worth checking out. Next night is on Nov 21.
Spates Hall Community Club at Fort Myers Base
214 McNair Road Arlington VA
9 PM to 1 AM
Meanwhile I’m going to try to turn this poor October around by visiting Philadelphia Salsafest on Oct 31 (Saturday only for me).
Unending Epilogue 6
September 2009
I think my Salsa nights out were 7 in all in September - 9/1 Barking Dog, 9/7 Clarendon Grill, 9/12 DCDC 9/14 Clarendon Grill, 9/22 Barking Dog, 9/26 DCDC, 9/18 Clarendon Grill. 9/20 could have been Lucky Strikes, but that night was cancelled. 9/21 Clarendon Grill was an anniversary event with a live band and was skipped because I thought it was going to be too crowded.
The frequency of going out is pretty similar to way it has been since September of 2008. Since then the nights out have been 6 for 9/08, 7 for 10/08, 8 for 11/08, 10 for 12/08, 7 for 1/09, 5 for 2/09, 8 for 3/09, 7 for 4/09, between 5-7 for both 5/09 and 6/09, 5 for 7/09, 7 for 8/09. I think 6 to 10 times a month is a pretty good number for me right now.
Melanie, Meryl, Michelle and Shiela are the new names to be added this month to the “list” of people. I think I could add Steve to the same list since I mentioned him without conversing with him last month – now corrected. I felt that Steve was the better DJ at the last DCDC, and his last 2 songs were Satin and Lace (TR version with full ending) and Good Night My Love (Louie Ramirez).
Last couple of nights were somewhat more talky than usual (not that I was not dancing any less than usual). Topics included SF, Seoul, Laurel and Honey Pig with Luz and Jimmy; comparing DJs with Leticia; Europe (UK, London, Moe, Leon) with Maylis; usual random assortments with Tanya. Monday was a birthday for someone whom I’ve enjoyed dancing with for a long time here (but I never caught her name).
I have been catching up on movies lately mostly outside theatres. Below is how I would rate them. Usually I would only watch movies I expect to be good – so a movie I rate 3 stars probably met my expectation.
No Country For Old Man ***1/2
Minority Report ***1/2
Synedoche, New York ***1/2
Superbad ***1/2
Michael Clayton ***1/2
Burn After Reading ***
The Simpsons Movie ***
A Quantum Of Solace ***
Iron Man ***
Sweeney Todd ***
Star Trek ***
District 9 ***
Smart People *** (above expectations)
Pineapple Express ***
Knocked Up ***
Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist ***
Man On Wire ***
3:30 To Yuma ***
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle ***
Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay **1/2 (met expectation)
Matrix 3 **1/2 (met expectation)
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button **1/2
Love Actually **1/2
Dogma **1/2
House Bunny **1/2 (met expectation)
I Am Legend **1/2
Harry Potter: Order Of The Phoenix **1/2
Nacho Libre **1/2 (met expectation)
Hellboy **
Romeo+Juliet **
Enchanted **
Semipro *1/2
Golden Compass * (did not meet low expectation)
I watched some movies starting with low expectations. Sometimes they were better than expected, met lower expectation or failed to meet even my low starting expectation. For example, Golden Compass failed to meet a very low expectation (I was expecting a 2 star movie and got a 1 star movie).
I guess I am making up for all the movies I did not watch because I was too busy at work or Salsa. For whatever its worth, I summarize last several years of movie for me below. Maybe it's safe to do this sort of thing now that the readership has gone down to about quarter of old days.
2008
I saw 1 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Wall-E was good. I caught The Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire on airplane – both were good. I’ve caught a few other top 20 movies in the past month. I can do without the ones I have not watched thus far.
2007
I saw 1 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Bourne Ultimatum was good. Three airplane movies (Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, Pirates of Caribbean 3) were instantly forgettable. I’ve watched some of the other top 20 movies in the past month, and the only remaining one I would be interested in watching is Juno and maybe Ratatouille.
2006
I saw 2 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Casino Royale and Talladega Nights were both good. The Departed on airplane was excellent. I could be convinced to watch Borat or Devil Wears Prada, but I don’t think I would be interested in any of the other top 20 movies. Cars probably is good, but the only Pixar movie I ever saw was Wall*E despite my guess that pretty much all Pixar movies are well made.
2005
I saw 4 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Wedding Crashers and 40 Year Old Virgin were good, and Revenge of Sith and Goblet of Fire were not so good. I saw 3 others in airplanes. Batman Begins was okay, Hitch was forgettable and Walk The Line was pretty good. The other 13 titles don't interest me.
2004
I saw 3 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Prisoner of Azkaban, Bourne Supremacy and 50 First Dates were good. Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, National Treasure were airplane or TV movies and were mediocre. The other 14 are of no interest. I started taking Salsa lessons in Sept 2004.
2003
I saw 4 of the top 20 movies and maybe 4 other movies in a theatre. Return of the King, Pirates of Caribbean were good whereas The Matrix Reloaded and Terminator 3 were merely okay. This is the year I moved to the UK.
2002
I saw 8 of the top 20 movies as well as several less popular movies. I’m pretty sure I averaged at least one movie per month for much of my adult life in the USA.
Old friends news front. Vish moved his venues once again - now to old Po Na Na for Mondays/Wednesdays and to Sports Centre on Mill Lane for Fridays. Apparently Cyrille stopped by last Friday. On another side of the planet, Agnes moved from Singapore to the Bay Area (or close enough).
On a more official business matter, the draft of the manuscript is nearly finished at somewhere between 60 and 70 pages.
I think my Salsa nights out were 7 in all in September - 9/1 Barking Dog, 9/7 Clarendon Grill, 9/12 DCDC 9/14 Clarendon Grill, 9/22 Barking Dog, 9/26 DCDC, 9/18 Clarendon Grill. 9/20 could have been Lucky Strikes, but that night was cancelled. 9/21 Clarendon Grill was an anniversary event with a live band and was skipped because I thought it was going to be too crowded.
The frequency of going out is pretty similar to way it has been since September of 2008. Since then the nights out have been 6 for 9/08, 7 for 10/08, 8 for 11/08, 10 for 12/08, 7 for 1/09, 5 for 2/09, 8 for 3/09, 7 for 4/09, between 5-7 for both 5/09 and 6/09, 5 for 7/09, 7 for 8/09. I think 6 to 10 times a month is a pretty good number for me right now.
Melanie, Meryl, Michelle and Shiela are the new names to be added this month to the “list” of people. I think I could add Steve to the same list since I mentioned him without conversing with him last month – now corrected. I felt that Steve was the better DJ at the last DCDC, and his last 2 songs were Satin and Lace (TR version with full ending) and Good Night My Love (Louie Ramirez).
Last couple of nights were somewhat more talky than usual (not that I was not dancing any less than usual). Topics included SF, Seoul, Laurel and Honey Pig with Luz and Jimmy; comparing DJs with Leticia; Europe (UK, London, Moe, Leon) with Maylis; usual random assortments with Tanya. Monday was a birthday for someone whom I’ve enjoyed dancing with for a long time here (but I never caught her name).
I have been catching up on movies lately mostly outside theatres. Below is how I would rate them. Usually I would only watch movies I expect to be good – so a movie I rate 3 stars probably met my expectation.
No Country For Old Man ***1/2
Minority Report ***1/2
Synedoche, New York ***1/2
Superbad ***1/2
Michael Clayton ***1/2
Burn After Reading ***
The Simpsons Movie ***
A Quantum Of Solace ***
Iron Man ***
Sweeney Todd ***
Star Trek ***
District 9 ***
Smart People *** (above expectations)
Pineapple Express ***
Knocked Up ***
Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist ***
Man On Wire ***
3:30 To Yuma ***
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle ***
Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay **1/2 (met expectation)
Matrix 3 **1/2 (met expectation)
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button **1/2
Love Actually **1/2
Dogma **1/2
House Bunny **1/2 (met expectation)
I Am Legend **1/2
Harry Potter: Order Of The Phoenix **1/2
Nacho Libre **1/2 (met expectation)
Hellboy **
Romeo+Juliet **
Enchanted **
Semipro *1/2
Golden Compass * (did not meet low expectation)
I watched some movies starting with low expectations. Sometimes they were better than expected, met lower expectation or failed to meet even my low starting expectation. For example, Golden Compass failed to meet a very low expectation (I was expecting a 2 star movie and got a 1 star movie).
I guess I am making up for all the movies I did not watch because I was too busy at work or Salsa. For whatever its worth, I summarize last several years of movie for me below. Maybe it's safe to do this sort of thing now that the readership has gone down to about quarter of old days.
2008
I saw 1 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Wall-E was good. I caught The Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire on airplane – both were good. I’ve caught a few other top 20 movies in the past month. I can do without the ones I have not watched thus far.
2007
I saw 1 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Bourne Ultimatum was good. Three airplane movies (Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, Pirates of Caribbean 3) were instantly forgettable. I’ve watched some of the other top 20 movies in the past month, and the only remaining one I would be interested in watching is Juno and maybe Ratatouille.
2006
I saw 2 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Casino Royale and Talladega Nights were both good. The Departed on airplane was excellent. I could be convinced to watch Borat or Devil Wears Prada, but I don’t think I would be interested in any of the other top 20 movies. Cars probably is good, but the only Pixar movie I ever saw was Wall*E despite my guess that pretty much all Pixar movies are well made.
2005
I saw 4 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Wedding Crashers and 40 Year Old Virgin were good, and Revenge of Sith and Goblet of Fire were not so good. I saw 3 others in airplanes. Batman Begins was okay, Hitch was forgettable and Walk The Line was pretty good. The other 13 titles don't interest me.
2004
I saw 3 of the top 20 movies in a theatre. Prisoner of Azkaban, Bourne Supremacy and 50 First Dates were good. Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, National Treasure were airplane or TV movies and were mediocre. The other 14 are of no interest. I started taking Salsa lessons in Sept 2004.
2003
I saw 4 of the top 20 movies and maybe 4 other movies in a theatre. Return of the King, Pirates of Caribbean were good whereas The Matrix Reloaded and Terminator 3 were merely okay. This is the year I moved to the UK.
2002
I saw 8 of the top 20 movies as well as several less popular movies. I’m pretty sure I averaged at least one movie per month for much of my adult life in the USA.
Old friends news front. Vish moved his venues once again - now to old Po Na Na for Mondays/Wednesdays and to Sports Centre on Mill Lane for Fridays. Apparently Cyrille stopped by last Friday. On another side of the planet, Agnes moved from Singapore to the Bay Area (or close enough).
On a more official business matter, the draft of the manuscript is nearly finished at somewhere between 60 and 70 pages.
Unending Epilogue 5
August 2009
How many times this month?
There was the Clavekazi anniversary part at the beginning of the month. Supposedly meetup.com group members received a discount, but only if you signed up for the right meetup group – I believe it was an official event for MD Salsa meetup and VA Salsa meetup group but not the DC Salsa meetup group on the account of DC group being on a vacation for the entire month of August (save their weekend NYC outing, which overlapped with the Clavekazi social). For whatever its worth, DC group by far has the largest membership, and VA and MD groups are organized jointly by another set of people. At least for now, organization via meetup site still is probably bigger than organization by facebook for the DC Salsa scene. It was a bit warm inside, and the musical selection for the last hour put me off a bit. Otherwise I found it a pretty enjoyable social.
Leaving the Clavekazi social, I was talked into a new night being started at Lucky Strikes in DC. I only realized after arriving that the text I had received said that the sender was the only On2 follower present – not that I consider myself On2 exclusivist or supremacist. It was okay especially considering there was no entry fee although the turnout was rather mediocre – blamed on a late-start on promotion. Some people I had not-too-great On2 dances gave me a pretty good On1 dances later in the evening. I was told other people had a pretty good impression of Lucky Strikes evening based upon their visit on subsequent weeks.
Second Saturday of the month took me to DC Dance Collective social, which has thus far been the place I’m most likely to be absent from thus far since moving here. The attendance was on the low side because of a competing party at The Salsa Room (a magazine release party for the Salsa Scene). I thought it was rather unfortunate that the release party was not organized for either the first, third or the fifth Saturday of the month, which would have enabled me to go to both events. For whatever its worth, the next magazine release party in October is also on the second Saturday – yuck. I wonder if this pattern will continue?
Anyhow given the relatively weak second Saturday and no prospect of interesting event the following weekend, I decided to hit Clarendon Grill for next two Mondays in a row as well as a trip to Barking Dog on one of the Tuesdays. The first Clarendon Grill night was particularly good, and the other two nights were pretty good too. The only complaint for Barking Dog was that the room was very warm – it did not seem like their AC was working properly. The fact that it was quite impossible to cool off in the warm room led to some not-so-pleasant conversation near the end of the evening. Two Bachata at Barking Dog was two more than usual for me at DC. The second Clarendon Grill night was made less than ideal probably because I ended up arriving rather late thanks to some ATM problems.
Fourth Saturday DC Dance collective was much better attended compared to the one two weeks earlier. Shaka Brown made an announcement that he is moving to Florida (but he plans to visit DC often still). I had gone on a 5-mile hike with Ignacio at the Sugarloaf mountain in the afternoon, and it seemed like my legs have gone out of shape with lack of exercise lately. So perhaps not surprisingly I ran out of energy fairly early. Otherwise this could have been an exceptionally good night. Also I was a bit frustrated with song selections starting from near the end of the first set of the first DJ (EricB?) and throughout the first set of the second DJ (Steve Martin) – too same too obscure too hardcore 60s-70s songs. Second sets by both DJs later were much more to my liking – although I was too tired to grab dance partners quickly enough by then. Since I seemed to have made a complaint about Steve Martin, I’ll try to limit damage (or perhaps get myself in bigger trouble) by saying that I’d rate Steve Martin as one of my top 5 (perhaps even top 3) social leads I enjoyed watching in the DC local scene.
Anyhow that led to a third Clarendon Grill Monday in a row. It was a reliably good CG night though nothing special by my CG standard. Here I was talked into visiting a place at National Harbor on the following Friday. This unfortunately ended up a fiasco, which I half expected I suppose. This particular event was advertised as an outdoor event, which seemed like a bad idea to me considering the hot humid summer weather we have in DC. Because the temperature was expected to be 69 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 20 degrees Celsius), I decided to at least take a drive there. Unfortunately when I arrived, I only glimpsed three couples dancing on the concrete floor and total of perhaps 10-12 people altogether. Entering seemed like a waste of 10 dollar cover, so I came back without further ado. It still cost me $11 for having parked the car for less than 20 minutes, however. Parking at the cheapest public garage costs at National Harbor $11 flat after 6 PM. Also I was drenched in sweat by doing nothing besides light walking at 70 degrees Fahrenheit – no doubt high humidity helped. Anyhow, it’s difficult to see me coming back to any event (Salsa or otherwise) to National Harbor.
Some new names I can now match with their face: Alexis, Orlando, Miranda, Leroy, Liz. Then there are old names I had forgotten to mention in previous epilogues: Ben, Diana, Cathy, Jen, Liz and Liz. For now, I’m only including people I think I can name reliably and people who I find more or less friendly towards me – latter of course is easy for people who come off seeming friendly to everyone. There are bunch of local people whom I can give check mark for only one of the criteria. Names mentioned in previous epilogues include Tanya, Jimmy, Luz, Leticia, Josh, Shaka, Earl, Tommy, Beto, Preston, Janet, Charissa, Brandon, Maylis, Cecilia.
I’m guessing I’ll be going out one more time this month – most likely this Monday thus making it four Mondays in a row. Oh well. Clarendon Grill is fine, but I wouldn’t have considered worth going four weeks in a row. Then again I am a bit put off by Barking Dog and would prefer to skip it for about a month if I can help it. There’s nothing interesting next weekend – the big event is the New York Salsa Congress, which I expect not to attend. So the only must event is the next DC Dance Collective social, which doubles as a birthday party for Tommy Smith who runs the event, still 2 weeks away. Ugh. Does that mean Clarendon Grill 5 weeks in a row??? [note added later: No chance of 5 weeks in a row because Clarendon Grill night is cancelled next Monday]
On topics other than Salsa, I’m now able to put more effort into writing and editing my manuscripts with some major distractions put to rest. I’ve also been taking some time exploring the strange world of K-Dramas. I also lifted self-imposed ban on facebook although I still have no plans to make use it as a blog or twitter type of device at this time.
How many times this month?
There was the Clavekazi anniversary part at the beginning of the month. Supposedly meetup.com group members received a discount, but only if you signed up for the right meetup group – I believe it was an official event for MD Salsa meetup and VA Salsa meetup group but not the DC Salsa meetup group on the account of DC group being on a vacation for the entire month of August (save their weekend NYC outing, which overlapped with the Clavekazi social). For whatever its worth, DC group by far has the largest membership, and VA and MD groups are organized jointly by another set of people. At least for now, organization via meetup site still is probably bigger than organization by facebook for the DC Salsa scene. It was a bit warm inside, and the musical selection for the last hour put me off a bit. Otherwise I found it a pretty enjoyable social.
Leaving the Clavekazi social, I was talked into a new night being started at Lucky Strikes in DC. I only realized after arriving that the text I had received said that the sender was the only On2 follower present – not that I consider myself On2 exclusivist or supremacist. It was okay especially considering there was no entry fee although the turnout was rather mediocre – blamed on a late-start on promotion. Some people I had not-too-great On2 dances gave me a pretty good On1 dances later in the evening. I was told other people had a pretty good impression of Lucky Strikes evening based upon their visit on subsequent weeks.
Second Saturday of the month took me to DC Dance Collective social, which has thus far been the place I’m most likely to be absent from thus far since moving here. The attendance was on the low side because of a competing party at The Salsa Room (a magazine release party for the Salsa Scene). I thought it was rather unfortunate that the release party was not organized for either the first, third or the fifth Saturday of the month, which would have enabled me to go to both events. For whatever its worth, the next magazine release party in October is also on the second Saturday – yuck. I wonder if this pattern will continue?
Anyhow given the relatively weak second Saturday and no prospect of interesting event the following weekend, I decided to hit Clarendon Grill for next two Mondays in a row as well as a trip to Barking Dog on one of the Tuesdays. The first Clarendon Grill night was particularly good, and the other two nights were pretty good too. The only complaint for Barking Dog was that the room was very warm – it did not seem like their AC was working properly. The fact that it was quite impossible to cool off in the warm room led to some not-so-pleasant conversation near the end of the evening. Two Bachata at Barking Dog was two more than usual for me at DC. The second Clarendon Grill night was made less than ideal probably because I ended up arriving rather late thanks to some ATM problems.
Fourth Saturday DC Dance collective was much better attended compared to the one two weeks earlier. Shaka Brown made an announcement that he is moving to Florida (but he plans to visit DC often still). I had gone on a 5-mile hike with Ignacio at the Sugarloaf mountain in the afternoon, and it seemed like my legs have gone out of shape with lack of exercise lately. So perhaps not surprisingly I ran out of energy fairly early. Otherwise this could have been an exceptionally good night. Also I was a bit frustrated with song selections starting from near the end of the first set of the first DJ (EricB?) and throughout the first set of the second DJ (Steve Martin) – too same too obscure too hardcore 60s-70s songs. Second sets by both DJs later were much more to my liking – although I was too tired to grab dance partners quickly enough by then. Since I seemed to have made a complaint about Steve Martin, I’ll try to limit damage (or perhaps get myself in bigger trouble) by saying that I’d rate Steve Martin as one of my top 5 (perhaps even top 3) social leads I enjoyed watching in the DC local scene.
Anyhow that led to a third Clarendon Grill Monday in a row. It was a reliably good CG night though nothing special by my CG standard. Here I was talked into visiting a place at National Harbor on the following Friday. This unfortunately ended up a fiasco, which I half expected I suppose. This particular event was advertised as an outdoor event, which seemed like a bad idea to me considering the hot humid summer weather we have in DC. Because the temperature was expected to be 69 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 20 degrees Celsius), I decided to at least take a drive there. Unfortunately when I arrived, I only glimpsed three couples dancing on the concrete floor and total of perhaps 10-12 people altogether. Entering seemed like a waste of 10 dollar cover, so I came back without further ado. It still cost me $11 for having parked the car for less than 20 minutes, however. Parking at the cheapest public garage costs at National Harbor $11 flat after 6 PM. Also I was drenched in sweat by doing nothing besides light walking at 70 degrees Fahrenheit – no doubt high humidity helped. Anyhow, it’s difficult to see me coming back to any event (Salsa or otherwise) to National Harbor.
Some new names I can now match with their face: Alexis, Orlando, Miranda, Leroy, Liz. Then there are old names I had forgotten to mention in previous epilogues: Ben, Diana, Cathy, Jen, Liz and Liz. For now, I’m only including people I think I can name reliably and people who I find more or less friendly towards me – latter of course is easy for people who come off seeming friendly to everyone. There are bunch of local people whom I can give check mark for only one of the criteria. Names mentioned in previous epilogues include Tanya, Jimmy, Luz, Leticia, Josh, Shaka, Earl, Tommy, Beto, Preston, Janet, Charissa, Brandon, Maylis, Cecilia.
I’m guessing I’ll be going out one more time this month – most likely this Monday thus making it four Mondays in a row. Oh well. Clarendon Grill is fine, but I wouldn’t have considered worth going four weeks in a row. Then again I am a bit put off by Barking Dog and would prefer to skip it for about a month if I can help it. There’s nothing interesting next weekend – the big event is the New York Salsa Congress, which I expect not to attend. So the only must event is the next DC Dance Collective social, which doubles as a birthday party for Tommy Smith who runs the event, still 2 weeks away. Ugh. Does that mean Clarendon Grill 5 weeks in a row??? [note added later: No chance of 5 weeks in a row because Clarendon Grill night is cancelled next Monday]
On topics other than Salsa, I’m now able to put more effort into writing and editing my manuscripts with some major distractions put to rest. I’ve also been taking some time exploring the strange world of K-Dramas. I also lifted self-imposed ban on facebook although I still have no plans to make use it as a blog or twitter type of device at this time.
Unending Epilogue 4
July 2009
How many times did I go out Salsa dancing this month? One disadvantage or benefit to not having a daily diary is that it is more difficult to keep track. I am sure I went out at least 4 times. I might have gone out as many as 7 times.
The last time I went out was the last Monday of July to Clarendon Grill. It’s easy to remember that one since it was only two days ago. Arguably the big event of the month was the SOS anniversary party on the third Saturday, which I also attended. I definitely went to the DC Dance Collective Saturday socials both times this month (second and fourth Saturdays). I don’t think I went out on July 4th,but I probably compensated by going to Clarendon Grill the Monday afterwards. So that probably makes it 5 nights out – my best guess. I think I’m done for July. Wow – that’s not a lot considering I do not feel burnt out.
I think it’s possible that I danced exclusively On2 on four of those five nights. Again wow. I actually made an active effort to try dancing On1 a few times this Monday, but there is little point to try to dance On1 elsewhere. This is so unexpected but not necessarily surprising in retrospect. There are very few people here who can step in time reliably and yet is rather poor in On2 timing. Big parties or at least the big parties I attend attract plenty of On2 dancers. The DC Dance Collective Saturday social tries to be DC’s version of Jimmy Anton social in NYC (the Mecca of On2 dancing) – in fact they probably picked their dates (second and fourth Saturdays) to be as far apart from Jimmy Anton social dates (first, third and occasional fifth Sundays) most of the time.
On a different note, I had talked to Tanya about having me play some songs at her social for a short segment. Now why would I want to do that? I’m not interested in getting DJ gigs. For the most part, I think I prefer to be dancing rather than playing. I’m far from certain that I would do a better job than people who are established here. In fact after having talked to Tanya, Jimmy, Stu and Tommy about their musical preferences, I actually find the prospect of a flop quite real – it might be really easy to displease many people with “wrong” song choices. Certainly pleasing everyone all the time is out of question since even these four alone have different tastes; some loves certain songs while others despise those same songs. At least one of the big reason why I asked to DJ was to try playing kind of songs that seem to get played here. However, I may not have a very good sense of which songs are being played a lot while which songs are nearly unheard of (I was told Hector Lavoe gets played to death by some DJs!). It doesn't help that I don’t go to many of the "typical" venues. In fact, I have heard only a handful of songs get played more than once in this area since April; the song selections seem pretty deep. Thus the amount of general Salsa music knowledge here may be considerably greater than I am used to – difficult to gauge.
Moving from audio to video, I discovered a clip of me dancing at the DC Salsa Congress. It was not a kind of video where one couple is the center of focus, but it was enough to cause some cringing and give myself some harsh evaluations. The shortest summary I could think of? I still suck. I think it shows that I really haven’t done any critical evaluation of how I look while dancing taking advantage of videotaping myself. Of course I don’t know if I have the energy and time to go to such efforts and I also don’t know if such measure would be beneficial in all ways. I say this because I could see a scenario where video analysis may help lead to removing certain excesses and perhaps bad habits, it may also lead to inhibitions and stagnation. Ultimately I imagine benefits would outweigh harms since knowing is ultimately better than not knowing. It’s something I should do eventually if I want to keep on dancing for a long time.
One of the things I cringed about was seeing how often I was failing to dance along to how the music was progressing. At least at two different passages, I was asking why the heck am I doing what I am doing at that point in the song? A few caveats. I don’t know the song so I suppose I could easily be caught off guard here and there. I never danced with the person I was dancing with before also – although that’s not much of an excuse and my recollection is that she was a pretty good follower by the Congress standard (and most people I danced with there were pretty darn good by my European Congress experience). One of the things I saw (although I suppose I was somewhat aware of this even before) is that even though I think I’m trying my best to dance according to the music I seem to be doing a pretty poor job of it – lucky if I’m doing okay maybe half or even one third of the song even with really good partners (arguably being generous with myself).
Another thing I did after finding this clip was to look at other social dancing clip from the same event. In most cases it was difficult for me to see that people dancing were making an effort to dance according to the music. A small minority was making an effort to accentuate the breaks in the song. It was less clear that most people who were trying to accentuate the breaks were paying attention to other parts of the song (although no doubt better than the general populace and occasionally I saw things that made me think what some people were doing were pretty darn good - miles better than what I was doing). So I guess the good news (or the bad news) is that most people were not succeeding most of the times either (or I can tell myself that I may be doing it poorly but doing it poorly could be considered better than not trying or not being aware?). I also would not be surprised if I come back to this a half year from now and say I had no idea what I was talking about; I write about these things but I certainly cannot be considered an expert or an authority of any sort in dancing (or music or pretty much everything).
There is one big question I have. Now the old-time musicians have said things like they can watch the way old-time dancers moved and be able to tell which music they were playing. Would they be able to do such thing in a Salsa congress event nowadays? I ask because I feel that I would be completely clueless about how to go about figuring out the song from the dancers from all the seemingly random moves different people go about performing at all parts of the song.
How many times did I go out Salsa dancing this month? One disadvantage or benefit to not having a daily diary is that it is more difficult to keep track. I am sure I went out at least 4 times. I might have gone out as many as 7 times.
The last time I went out was the last Monday of July to Clarendon Grill. It’s easy to remember that one since it was only two days ago. Arguably the big event of the month was the SOS anniversary party on the third Saturday, which I also attended. I definitely went to the DC Dance Collective Saturday socials both times this month (second and fourth Saturdays). I don’t think I went out on July 4th,but I probably compensated by going to Clarendon Grill the Monday afterwards. So that probably makes it 5 nights out – my best guess. I think I’m done for July. Wow – that’s not a lot considering I do not feel burnt out.
I think it’s possible that I danced exclusively On2 on four of those five nights. Again wow. I actually made an active effort to try dancing On1 a few times this Monday, but there is little point to try to dance On1 elsewhere. This is so unexpected but not necessarily surprising in retrospect. There are very few people here who can step in time reliably and yet is rather poor in On2 timing. Big parties or at least the big parties I attend attract plenty of On2 dancers. The DC Dance Collective Saturday social tries to be DC’s version of Jimmy Anton social in NYC (the Mecca of On2 dancing) – in fact they probably picked their dates (second and fourth Saturdays) to be as far apart from Jimmy Anton social dates (first, third and occasional fifth Sundays) most of the time.
On a different note, I had talked to Tanya about having me play some songs at her social for a short segment. Now why would I want to do that? I’m not interested in getting DJ gigs. For the most part, I think I prefer to be dancing rather than playing. I’m far from certain that I would do a better job than people who are established here. In fact after having talked to Tanya, Jimmy, Stu and Tommy about their musical preferences, I actually find the prospect of a flop quite real – it might be really easy to displease many people with “wrong” song choices. Certainly pleasing everyone all the time is out of question since even these four alone have different tastes; some loves certain songs while others despise those same songs. At least one of the big reason why I asked to DJ was to try playing kind of songs that seem to get played here. However, I may not have a very good sense of which songs are being played a lot while which songs are nearly unheard of (I was told Hector Lavoe gets played to death by some DJs!). It doesn't help that I don’t go to many of the "typical" venues. In fact, I have heard only a handful of songs get played more than once in this area since April; the song selections seem pretty deep. Thus the amount of general Salsa music knowledge here may be considerably greater than I am used to – difficult to gauge.
Moving from audio to video, I discovered a clip of me dancing at the DC Salsa Congress. It was not a kind of video where one couple is the center of focus, but it was enough to cause some cringing and give myself some harsh evaluations. The shortest summary I could think of? I still suck. I think it shows that I really haven’t done any critical evaluation of how I look while dancing taking advantage of videotaping myself. Of course I don’t know if I have the energy and time to go to such efforts and I also don’t know if such measure would be beneficial in all ways. I say this because I could see a scenario where video analysis may help lead to removing certain excesses and perhaps bad habits, it may also lead to inhibitions and stagnation. Ultimately I imagine benefits would outweigh harms since knowing is ultimately better than not knowing. It’s something I should do eventually if I want to keep on dancing for a long time.
One of the things I cringed about was seeing how often I was failing to dance along to how the music was progressing. At least at two different passages, I was asking why the heck am I doing what I am doing at that point in the song? A few caveats. I don’t know the song so I suppose I could easily be caught off guard here and there. I never danced with the person I was dancing with before also – although that’s not much of an excuse and my recollection is that she was a pretty good follower by the Congress standard (and most people I danced with there were pretty darn good by my European Congress experience). One of the things I saw (although I suppose I was somewhat aware of this even before) is that even though I think I’m trying my best to dance according to the music I seem to be doing a pretty poor job of it – lucky if I’m doing okay maybe half or even one third of the song even with really good partners (arguably being generous with myself).
Another thing I did after finding this clip was to look at other social dancing clip from the same event. In most cases it was difficult for me to see that people dancing were making an effort to dance according to the music. A small minority was making an effort to accentuate the breaks in the song. It was less clear that most people who were trying to accentuate the breaks were paying attention to other parts of the song (although no doubt better than the general populace and occasionally I saw things that made me think what some people were doing were pretty darn good - miles better than what I was doing). So I guess the good news (or the bad news) is that most people were not succeeding most of the times either (or I can tell myself that I may be doing it poorly but doing it poorly could be considered better than not trying or not being aware?). I also would not be surprised if I come back to this a half year from now and say I had no idea what I was talking about; I write about these things but I certainly cannot be considered an expert or an authority of any sort in dancing (or music or pretty much everything).
There is one big question I have. Now the old-time musicians have said things like they can watch the way old-time dancers moved and be able to tell which music they were playing. Would they be able to do such thing in a Salsa congress event nowadays? I ask because I feel that I would be completely clueless about how to go about figuring out the song from the dancers from all the seemingly random moves different people go about performing at all parts of the song.
Unending Epilogue 3
June 2009
Still leading an unproductive life. Spending way too much time in front of a small laptop screen. Inertia is not a good thing. People think I’m brilliant though – and not just for Salsa. I shouldn’t take anything from the compliments other than I am not brain dead.
As for Salsa, I hardly danced On1 this month. I think almost everyone prefer On2 pretty much everywhere I go. I think I might be getting rusty with On1 in fact. This is something I never expected.
The biggest event this month was the DC Salsa Congress. I only managed to go on Friday night and Sunday night – and I originally thought I was going to miss Sunday night. Despite missing the biggest night (Saturday), I thought the Congress was brilliant. At least for Salsa that is. It was actually a fairly small Congress by the numbers but not in quality. I danced with some people (complete strangers) as many as 4 times including one girl from Finland/NC, who could have passed for a model/actress/whatever (she was surprisingly good and seemed to enjoy the dances with me a great deal, which was good but also somewhat sad for my ego/mind/whatever).
That Saturday I was in New York for a cousin’s wedding. The DJ there after seeing me dance Cha Cha to Oye Como Va by Santana with one of my aunts decided to play – La Vida Es Un Carnaval. A 72-year old man (husband of groom’s older sister) complimented me on Cha Cha saying he loved that dance. I thought he was in his early 50s – in fact he could have passed from someone in his 40s. His daughter (in her 50s) told me later that her father seems to get younger as he ages.
Still leading an unproductive life. Spending way too much time in front of a small laptop screen. Inertia is not a good thing. People think I’m brilliant though – and not just for Salsa. I shouldn’t take anything from the compliments other than I am not brain dead.
As for Salsa, I hardly danced On1 this month. I think almost everyone prefer On2 pretty much everywhere I go. I think I might be getting rusty with On1 in fact. This is something I never expected.
The biggest event this month was the DC Salsa Congress. I only managed to go on Friday night and Sunday night – and I originally thought I was going to miss Sunday night. Despite missing the biggest night (Saturday), I thought the Congress was brilliant. At least for Salsa that is. It was actually a fairly small Congress by the numbers but not in quality. I danced with some people (complete strangers) as many as 4 times including one girl from Finland/NC, who could have passed for a model/actress/whatever (she was surprisingly good and seemed to enjoy the dances with me a great deal, which was good but also somewhat sad for my ego/mind/whatever).
That Saturday I was in New York for a cousin’s wedding. The DJ there after seeing me dance Cha Cha to Oye Como Va by Santana with one of my aunts decided to play – La Vida Es Un Carnaval. A 72-year old man (husband of groom’s older sister) complimented me on Cha Cha saying he loved that dance. I thought he was in his early 50s – in fact he could have passed from someone in his 40s. His daughter (in her 50s) told me later that her father seems to get younger as he ages.
Unending Epilogue 2
May 2009
The whole month is now something of a blur – mostly because I spent a lot of time playing a real-time warfare MMPORG for about a month. For whatever its worth, I have been a top 40 player (and top player on third ranked alliance) in the server I ended up on for last few weeks. I should be dramatically reducing my playing time very soon however and probably will quit altogether since I do want to get back to doing other things.
As for Salsa, it has been once or twice a week outing for most of May. The venues I’ve visited include DC Dance Collective (second and fourth Saturdays), Clarendon Grill (Mon), Barking Dog (Tues) and some special events at The Salsa Room. With apologies to other venues, which I have not frequented, these venues at the moment are the premiere locations for ET On2 dancers to my best understanding. For whatever its worth, I probably ended up dancing more On2 compared to On1 for this month.
A question I had been wondering for a while was, “How much was my blog affecting people’s perception towards me?” A related question might be whether some people were more likely to dance with me or not because of the blog. After a month, I think it is pretty clear that the absence of blog here made absolutely no difference. None. Nada. Zilch. Some people don’t like dancing with me after once or twice. Some won’t say yes the first time I ask (some will come find me later). For whatever its worth, people in the know tells me that I may come across as too scary good for some.
From previous outings, I have been somewhat familiar with people like Earl, Beto, Jimmy, Janet, Josh, Maylis, Tommy and Tanya (some of these people teach, others are social dancers). I suppose I can add Leticia, Ceci, Brendan, Preston, Luz and Shaka to the list of acquaintances or more. For Haihan, I did dance with Charissa, but I didn’t realize it was her so no introduction yet.
The most annoying night happened while visiting a DC venue called Station 9 for someone’s pre-wedding party. The streets were a maze. My debit card PIN did not work so I couldn’t withdraw any cash needed for entry. The people I knew inside were out of cash. I called the bank to deal with the PIN issue only to be placed on hold and then sent to nowhere (or where I started from) until my phone ran out. By then, I had enough and went home. Oh well.
The whole month is now something of a blur – mostly because I spent a lot of time playing a real-time warfare MMPORG for about a month. For whatever its worth, I have been a top 40 player (and top player on third ranked alliance) in the server I ended up on for last few weeks. I should be dramatically reducing my playing time very soon however and probably will quit altogether since I do want to get back to doing other things.
As for Salsa, it has been once or twice a week outing for most of May. The venues I’ve visited include DC Dance Collective (second and fourth Saturdays), Clarendon Grill (Mon), Barking Dog (Tues) and some special events at The Salsa Room. With apologies to other venues, which I have not frequented, these venues at the moment are the premiere locations for ET On2 dancers to my best understanding. For whatever its worth, I probably ended up dancing more On2 compared to On1 for this month.
A question I had been wondering for a while was, “How much was my blog affecting people’s perception towards me?” A related question might be whether some people were more likely to dance with me or not because of the blog. After a month, I think it is pretty clear that the absence of blog here made absolutely no difference. None. Nada. Zilch. Some people don’t like dancing with me after once or twice. Some won’t say yes the first time I ask (some will come find me later). For whatever its worth, people in the know tells me that I may come across as too scary good for some.
From previous outings, I have been somewhat familiar with people like Earl, Beto, Jimmy, Janet, Josh, Maylis, Tommy and Tanya (some of these people teach, others are social dancers). I suppose I can add Leticia, Ceci, Brendan, Preston, Luz and Shaka to the list of acquaintances or more. For Haihan, I did dance with Charissa, but I didn’t realize it was her so no introduction yet.
The most annoying night happened while visiting a DC venue called Station 9 for someone’s pre-wedding party. The streets were a maze. My debit card PIN did not work so I couldn’t withdraw any cash needed for entry. The people I knew inside were out of cash. I called the bank to deal with the PIN issue only to be placed on hold and then sent to nowhere (or where I started from) until my phone ran out. By then, I had enough and went home. Oh well.
Unending Epilogue: month 1
April 2009
As far as Salsa is concerned I am having more difficulty adjusting to the time difference than in the past. This is because I had been getting up early in the morning for much of April while I was travelling across the UK, France and the Lowlands. Even a full week after returning, I often find myself feeling sleepy by 5 PM. Thankfully I stopped getting up before 7 in the morning.
The process of getting back to life in America is moving slowly. I suppose it is faster than it was moving to the UK though. I begun the process opening a bank account on my third day back and received some account information within a week after arriving. Although things like debit cards and full online access information have not arrived yet, it sure beats taking nearly a month to get an account in the UK.
Originally I did not expect to get a mobile phone for a while. I still haven’t gotten one, but I think I will end up getting one – after completing my bank account details. Already one person asked me for cell phone (or mobile phone) information. I imagine I won’t use it much, but I suppose I should make myself “reachable” by methods other than e-mail. I’ll probably end with pay-as-you-go (or prepaid) phone – quite possibly with Virgin Mobile (a British outfit no less).
For this monthly update (no guarantees that I will keep this up), there has been only one Salsa outing. I meant to go to a second night but combination of a headache caused by a cold and some surprise dinner guests put that plan out the door. The one time I did go out I felt at less than top shape possibly because of combination of general inactivity and sleep issues neither of which had been helped by the aforementioned cold and headache.
It took no time to catch up with some friends I made from my last visit once at one of the regular hotspots (I’ll refrain from naming specific places or names local – at least for now). Heck, they even remembered my name too (fortunately I remembered theirs too). I also saw a lot of people I did not see before. I know it’s a mistake to judge a scene by one night but this one night made me think of Sergio saying that many good dancers don’t go out on local nights here.
As I was writing the last paragraph, I realized of a personal bias – not necessarily fair but perhaps illuminating. I rate followers based on how they dance with me. They could look good dancing with some other people, but I probably would think less of them if they were unable to dance well with me. On the other hand I rate leaders solely based on how they look dancing with others. This makes perfect sense, but it does mean there presumably will be some disconnect between how I rate other leads compared to how followers rate same leads.
Anyhow the reason why I got into this talk is that I saw two new leads I had not seen before who I thought would have kicked ass if they showed up in London – arguably better than many of “names” dropped in advertisements on web and on fliers for big events. (Heck, I think some of those name guys are quite awful – neither distinctive, entertaining nor aesthetically pleasing.) It also made me think that I haven’t gotten very far – even though I won’t see I haven’t made any progress recently but it seemed to me that some people here have made much bigger progress in last several months while I have been doing very little. Oh well. Maybe I’m doomed to plateau and fall behind the times. Who knows?
Finally I really should not comment on the Cambridge scene anymore – I’ll just say that I still do keep track of what’s going on there and that it is not lacking drama and intrigue.
As far as Salsa is concerned I am having more difficulty adjusting to the time difference than in the past. This is because I had been getting up early in the morning for much of April while I was travelling across the UK, France and the Lowlands. Even a full week after returning, I often find myself feeling sleepy by 5 PM. Thankfully I stopped getting up before 7 in the morning.
The process of getting back to life in America is moving slowly. I suppose it is faster than it was moving to the UK though. I begun the process opening a bank account on my third day back and received some account information within a week after arriving. Although things like debit cards and full online access information have not arrived yet, it sure beats taking nearly a month to get an account in the UK.
Originally I did not expect to get a mobile phone for a while. I still haven’t gotten one, but I think I will end up getting one – after completing my bank account details. Already one person asked me for cell phone (or mobile phone) information. I imagine I won’t use it much, but I suppose I should make myself “reachable” by methods other than e-mail. I’ll probably end with pay-as-you-go (or prepaid) phone – quite possibly with Virgin Mobile (a British outfit no less).
For this monthly update (no guarantees that I will keep this up), there has been only one Salsa outing. I meant to go to a second night but combination of a headache caused by a cold and some surprise dinner guests put that plan out the door. The one time I did go out I felt at less than top shape possibly because of combination of general inactivity and sleep issues neither of which had been helped by the aforementioned cold and headache.
It took no time to catch up with some friends I made from my last visit once at one of the regular hotspots (I’ll refrain from naming specific places or names local – at least for now). Heck, they even remembered my name too (fortunately I remembered theirs too). I also saw a lot of people I did not see before. I know it’s a mistake to judge a scene by one night but this one night made me think of Sergio saying that many good dancers don’t go out on local nights here.
As I was writing the last paragraph, I realized of a personal bias – not necessarily fair but perhaps illuminating. I rate followers based on how they dance with me. They could look good dancing with some other people, but I probably would think less of them if they were unable to dance well with me. On the other hand I rate leaders solely based on how they look dancing with others. This makes perfect sense, but it does mean there presumably will be some disconnect between how I rate other leads compared to how followers rate same leads.
Anyhow the reason why I got into this talk is that I saw two new leads I had not seen before who I thought would have kicked ass if they showed up in London – arguably better than many of “names” dropped in advertisements on web and on fliers for big events. (Heck, I think some of those name guys are quite awful – neither distinctive, entertaining nor aesthetically pleasing.) It also made me think that I haven’t gotten very far – even though I won’t see I haven’t made any progress recently but it seemed to me that some people here have made much bigger progress in last several months while I have been doing very little. Oh well. Maybe I’m doomed to plateau and fall behind the times. Who knows?
Finally I really should not comment on the Cambridge scene anymore – I’ll just say that I still do keep track of what’s going on there and that it is not lacking drama and intrigue.
Coda
April 21, 2009
There should be no more recommendation given to me to talk about the weather rather than talk of people unless it is done behind their back. I imagine such thought came to mind in order to counterbalance admiration I felt for the countryside landscape outside the coach windows.
Beautiful weather, chronic transportation issues. It took over 20 minutes for the coach to move more than 50 meters from its parked space. At Stansted, the driver announced that M25 was closed in the direction we needed to go so we would have to weave through the countryside.
Roads and rails are so unreliable here. It is a big surprise when no problem is encountered in a long trip. I would estimate that M25 to Heathrow is problematic more than 75% of the time in my experience. In past 3 weeks, we suffered through an incident at Finsbury park resulting in 1+ hour delay, a long escalator out of action for 6 months at Pimlico tube station affecting us for 5 days, a train station closure for Liam a couple of days ago and a painfully slow drive through Bow street for Sergio and me. And then there are three out of three problematic trips to Heathrow. Maybe I should start a new blog entitled “On The Road” to detail trials and tribulations of travelling. One thing the UK has over the USA - widespread use of traffic light systems with vehicle detectors.
In the end the coach returned to a sparse M25 (J21) for the final leg of the journey. There was no problem arriving at terminal 5 before appointed time (1:30 PM). One excess weight baggage charge (25 pounds) after rearranging the bags, another Wagamama lunch, several e-mail correspondences, then boarding what appeared to be no more than half-full flight. I switched my seat as soon as possible for more space.
Once again I used westbound transatlantic flight to catch up on some film: Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, The Reader and Bolt – chosen in part for their length. Also about 80 pages of 2666 were devoured during the entire trip. The flight was a little slow not helped by not being able to fly through the NYC airspace. The descent was rather turbulent. The trip was generally a trouble-free.
Ross had suggested writing a book with the blog as base material on the drive back to Cambridge last night. I said immediacy is a problem – although perhaps immediacy is the current trend. I imagine the bigger issue would be interest – there simply are not that many people so interested in dance (or Salsa dance). It would have to be a backdrop rather than a main focus for enough people to be interest. And the writing would have to be pretty darn good too. All of it would take a lot of effort and time – who knows though?
In any case, no more daily Salsa blog. No more entry? - quite possibly since it agrees with my aesthetics. New blog? - to be determined. Certainly no Learning Salsa In DC.
There should be no more recommendation given to me to talk about the weather rather than talk of people unless it is done behind their back. I imagine such thought came to mind in order to counterbalance admiration I felt for the countryside landscape outside the coach windows.
Beautiful weather, chronic transportation issues. It took over 20 minutes for the coach to move more than 50 meters from its parked space. At Stansted, the driver announced that M25 was closed in the direction we needed to go so we would have to weave through the countryside.
Roads and rails are so unreliable here. It is a big surprise when no problem is encountered in a long trip. I would estimate that M25 to Heathrow is problematic more than 75% of the time in my experience. In past 3 weeks, we suffered through an incident at Finsbury park resulting in 1+ hour delay, a long escalator out of action for 6 months at Pimlico tube station affecting us for 5 days, a train station closure for Liam a couple of days ago and a painfully slow drive through Bow street for Sergio and me. And then there are three out of three problematic trips to Heathrow. Maybe I should start a new blog entitled “On The Road” to detail trials and tribulations of travelling. One thing the UK has over the USA - widespread use of traffic light systems with vehicle detectors.
In the end the coach returned to a sparse M25 (J21) for the final leg of the journey. There was no problem arriving at terminal 5 before appointed time (1:30 PM). One excess weight baggage charge (25 pounds) after rearranging the bags, another Wagamama lunch, several e-mail correspondences, then boarding what appeared to be no more than half-full flight. I switched my seat as soon as possible for more space.
Once again I used westbound transatlantic flight to catch up on some film: Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, The Reader and Bolt – chosen in part for their length. Also about 80 pages of 2666 were devoured during the entire trip. The flight was a little slow not helped by not being able to fly through the NYC airspace. The descent was rather turbulent. The trip was generally a trouble-free.
Ross had suggested writing a book with the blog as base material on the drive back to Cambridge last night. I said immediacy is a problem – although perhaps immediacy is the current trend. I imagine the bigger issue would be interest – there simply are not that many people so interested in dance (or Salsa dance). It would have to be a backdrop rather than a main focus for enough people to be interest. And the writing would have to be pretty darn good too. All of it would take a lot of effort and time – who knows though?
In any case, no more daily Salsa blog. No more entry? - quite possibly since it agrees with my aesthetics. New blog? - to be determined. Certainly no Learning Salsa In DC.
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