Another late nighter

January 12, 2007

After something of a last minute reservation and late arrivals, we had a dinner at Café Adriatic. I arrived shortly after Cyrille and shortly before Natalie and Sergio. The biggest consideration for the choice of restaurant? Pizza and pasta for Natalie. A memorable topic? Harrowing experiences in bad neighborhoods. I headed straight to Club Salsa after dinner while the other three went for a drink first at the Sauce.

I arrived about 10 minutes after the end of classes, and Vishal had a CD on an autopilot. I decided to let it play on for 3-4 songs. The place was still filled mostly with beginners, and some of the people hanging about found the songs too fast - even things like Micaela by Sonora Carruseles and Thinking of You by Lenny Kravitz. This led Serap to end the play of Vishal's CD and play something very slow (Victor Manuelle?). I followed it up with the idea of playing more slow songs to start with.

Playlist

Mandali - Africando (-3%)
Fragile - Massimo Scalici (-2%) (1)
Lluvia - Eddie Santiago (-1%)
Sientate Ahi - Oscar D'Leon
La Muy Muy - Roberto Torres
Malanga Amarilla - Cachao
Brujeria - El Gran Combo
Adelante Siempre Voy - Ray Barretto (2)
El Tornillo De Guillo - La 33
Sopa En Botella - Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco (3)*

break (Theodore first then Vishal. I didn't recognize most songs played by Theodore apart from Me Voy Pa Cali. The song I remembered most from Vishal's selections was another version of Merecumbe (not Johnny Colon and seemingly not Los Titanes).)

La-La-La - Direct Latin Influence (4)
El Abaniquito - Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers (5)
Ave Maria Lola - Roberto Torres
Vitamina - Sonora Carruseles
Mambo Gozon - Tito Puente (Mambo Birdland version) (6)
Te Extrano - Toke D Keda (7)
Apretoncito - Toke D Keda
La Mano - Oscar D'Leon (8)*
Me Dejo - Oscar D'Leon (9)

(1) This one drove people away from the floor. Funny/odd. Sometimes it's wildly popular. Sometimes it's like this. I wasn't going to stop the song right away, so I cued next song and danced on a sparse floor so fill the time. Mandali and Lluvia were fine with tonight's people.
(2) Theodore came by and asked to DJ a little later.
(3) Another chance to dance. Cyrille, Sergio and Natalie arrived about here. Ditto for Stephanie. Euvian and Mimi arrived shortly thereafter. Luis (he arrived before all of them but well after I started DJing tonight) made a comment like, "I'm very disappointed with your last 12 songs or so." I asked, "Did you not like Celia Cruz?" He replied, "I liked that one. That was the only one I liked," and started singing parts of the song. Oh well. My first 3 songs were throwaway picks chosen primarily because of their speed. I suppose the next 3 songs were on slow side too (with a caveat that I like all of them and that I would jump at a chance to dance if someone else played them). The La 33 song was chosen as a lead-in for Sopa En Botella.
(4) Vishal's last song was a Merengue.
(5) I originally had Lindo Yambu (Cheo Feliciano) cued before changing my mind. Shila asked what I was going to play next and was happy to hear this choice. He went to find a partner for the song - he might have ended with Mimi. Stephanie stopped by to remind me that I haven't danced with her yet. Some guy came to ask about this song too. I considered playing something like Cao Cao Mani Picao before settling on Roberto Torres next (but not Caballo Viejo, which now gets played all the time again by Vishal).
(6) Luis seemed mollified by now. Natalie and Sergio have left by now.
(7) Vishal - "What's next? Another Bachata?" Me - "Yes." Vishal - "Good."
(8) It didn't draw an instant crowd, but it was fine by the end. I think some people were singing along to it.
(9) Last song before Vishal took over again saying that the bar is quiet - for the rest of the evenig. Oh well. Another abbreviated DJing stint. It did give me a chance to dance with Stephanie to an okay song. Vishal seemed to be using the Congress CD a fair bit - both Suelta El Bongo (La 33) and Man's World (Ray Santiago) was heard later in the evening. Vishal also played Nadie Como Ella by Marc Anthony, which was a song I had been thinking about playing at some point - the fact that he has it and plays it probably means I'm less likely to play it.

Total 19 songs. 17 Salsa. 2 Bachata. 2 new songs. Three's a crowd.

A lot of people were claiming to be tired. Mimi because of her workload. Stephanie because of rowing and no dinner (luckily I had a chocolate bar - no details). Euvian because of jet lag (she arrived yesterday). Me? I was very tired this morning because of lack of sleep, but I was a little better by the evening. Of course, everyone who complained of tiredness stayed til the bitter end (except for Euvian, who left fairly early - after Sergio and Natalie).

By the way, it was nice to have Euvian back. Some of the newer moves I have acquired recently (many with help from Stephanie) worked very well with her too. This is great because whether a move works with Euvian seems to me an excellent indicator as to whether I am leading those moves correctly. One of the Joe Davids move from earlier this week worked especially well with her - she said she liked it a lot. I should add that I liked leading that particular move with Euvian because she followed it better than anyone else (without having practiced the move and probably without ever having seen the move before) - she followed it based on correct tension rather than by anticipation (or in many cases not following because of hesitation).

There was another late night photo session when Reggaeton started. After snapping a couple of photos of me with Mimi and Stephanie, Cyrille called me lucky. I thought I looked pretty silly in those photos, but I guess I'll keep them.

Topic of the day - Hands. They came up both at the beginning and the end of the evening.