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September 22, 2006

Playlist

Ave Maria Lola – Sonora Carruseles (-1%)
Soledad – La 33 (-1%)
La Muerte – El Gran Combo (-2%)*
A El – Oscar D’Leon (-2%)*
Betece – Africando (-2%)
Desnudate Mujer – Frankie Ruiz (-2%)
La Cartera – Larry Harlow (-2%)
Culebra – Grupo Niche
Dejame Sonar – Tito Puente (with Tony Vega) (-2%)
Quitate La Mascara – Ray Barretto
Esas Lagrimas – Gilberto Santa Rosa (1)
1-800-Quiereme – Luisito Rosario (-2%)
No Me Resigno – Toque D’ Keda
El Pito – Isidro Infante (-2%)
Soy El Rey – Pete Rodriguez (-2%)
Periodico De Ayer – Hector Lavoe (2)
La Llave – Grupo Latin Vibe (3)

break

Brujeria – El Gran Combo (4)
Micaela – Sonora Carruseles (probably here)
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon (5)
Amor De Una Noche – N’Klabe
Ven Tu – Dominic Marte
Picadillo – Tito Puente (6)
El Preso – Fruko Y Sus Tesos
Aicha – Africando
Push, Push, Push – Joe Cuba (7)
La Pantera Mambo – La 33
Ran Kan Kan – Tito Puente (8)

(1) This was in response to a request for Gilberto Santa Rosa. There was another request earlier for J. Lo. Later in the evening there was a request for Samba!
(2) I was expecting Vishal to have taken over so that I could dance to this one. It didn’t happen.
(3) So I danced to this instead. Vishal seems to be taking a liking to this song. “A very nice Mambo” was what he called it. Whatever he meant by Mambo…
(4) Vishal was doing a bit too much mixing and fusing. It would take a little while to get the crowd under my control.
(5) Gordon asked whether I played this slow. I played it at normal speed. I suggested that other DJs (Vishal) must be playing it speeded up. In my opinion, it’s a perfectly nice slow song.
(6) Taken from 50 Years of Swing. Fast and not popular possibly because of it. Vishal exclaims no more Mambo. Whatever! It’s possible that a better sequence of songs would have been to play a medium speed Salsa (after the preceding Bachata) before playing this one.
(7) Cha Cha again. A short one about 2 min 15 seconds long. I was trying to get Sean’s attention although it ended up being for naught. It had some interesting consequences.
(8) I was trying to get a specific dance with this one thinking that this song would clear the floor (based upon an assumption that Tito Puente is not popular in Cambridge). It didn’t work – although I still danced to the song, it was very popular and did not leave me plenty of space. This by the way was Mambo Birdland live version.

The evening was as good as it could be expected given the circumstances (i.e. the Bognor Regis Salsa Congress) and was quite a bit like the way I imagined it was going to be but not exactly. I guess that's part of the fun. I think I danced with five people in all. Unlike last week, I felt quite relaxed and laid back. I probably could have done more socializing but no big deal – I think there will be more opportunities. Actually thinking back, the volume of conversations I had was not atypically low and I conversed with many people outside my usual circle. I also could say that I could have done with more dancing (to nice or whatever half-way Salsa-like songs Vishal happened to play here and there). I suppose I could have done more DJing – I felt the response from the crowd always got better as longer my sets went on.

My playlist was very conservative because of the people who were there (or not there). 28 songs. 25 Salsa. 2 Bachata. 1 Cha Cha. I only played two new songs, but they were of insignificant note (because they are plenty familiar to Cambridge regulars).

There was a hen party involving some of the Salsa regulars. The party included Louise and Clare, and the bride-to-be was Alison (whom I knew before but not very well) – not to be confused with yet another Alison and Clare in the Cambridge Salsa scene. I think they had to be the least kitschy (fashion-wise) and easily the best dancing hen party at Club Salsa ever.

Question of the day – “Are you going to write about this on the blog?”

The question was asked with typing motion too. The answer was clearly no – it’s precisely the kind of things I avoid writing about (unless I already wrote about it and I mistook the meaning of the question). This is getting a little ridiculous!

Quote of the day – “I hope you don’t judge me on that dance.”

No way. Never. At least I hope I won't ever become close-minded. Since when did people start caring about my opinion of them or impressing me (in dancing or anything else for that matter)? Perfection is very elusive even with fair bit of practice. For whatever it’s worth, it is extremely rare for me to have a dance without at least a couple of miscommunications. Often, it happens because my lead is not spot on. Besides it happened after a few drinks and it was very late in the evening.

I wonder what Monday’s going to be like. It probably won’t get back to normal until Thursday. I’m looking forward to days like next Monday, Thursday and Sunday way too much. Oh… and there’s Johnny & Serap’s party next Saturday too. Yikes. It’s going to be a long weekend.