Quarter century mark (+1)

March 2, 2007

I have been here before. We ended up here for a meal before Pasion de Invierno (CDC Winter Salsa ball) last year. According to the map provided by the restaurant, where I parked my car should have been placed me right by the restaurant (about where Man on the Moon is located). In reality, CB2 Bistro was more than 100 meters down the road close to East Road.

I was more than 20 minutes late, but the birthday girl had not left her house yet. At the restaurant were Zhenzhi, Raj, Haihan, Stephanie and Cyrille. Mimi and Song arrived shortly thereafter. Euvian and her housemates (sans Zern, who wasn't feeling well from too much drinking) arrived a bit later. Last to arrive was Sergio.

Probably the thing that struck me most was the number of cameras used during the dinner. At least four different cameras came out of people's pockets - Rajiv's, Haihan's, Mimi's, mine and possibly Euvian's. They were used a lot too - my camera alone took over 30 photographs.

The other topics of amusement included people's reactions to last night - including that of Ivan (the childe). Sergio dug deep into his bag of sardonic humor. Also there was plenty of Salsa gossip galore. Chances are if you are reading this, you were probably talked about whether you were there or not. Taking care of the bill took a long time too.

The weather was lousy. With chilly air and rain, it took a while to get the large group to move to the cars to get to Club Salsa next. Many people were not well prepared - Sergio complained of getting wet feet while Stephanie ended up dancing on heels. A couple of bicycles were left abandoned. Euvian needed some convincing to go dancing.

I arrived well past 10:30 once again. Some new guy was DJing - using surprisingly little Salsa music. I don't ever recall hearing Hips Don't Lie so early in the evening at Club Salsa. My sets were very short.

Playlist

Es La Musica - Massimo Scalici (1)
Cubanoson - Cubanoson (2)
Casita De Margot - SonSublime
Sun Sun Babae - Celia Cruz* (3)
Abran Paso - Larry Harlow (con Ismael Miranda)
Ven Tu - Domenic Marte
No Me Resigno - Toke D Keda
Anacaona - Cheo Feliciano

break

Picadillo - Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri (4)
Lagrimas Negras - Cubanoson
Campanero - Jose Mangual Jr*
Tu Son - Oscar D'Leon
Vitamina - Sonora Carruseles (5)

(1) This seemed like a reasonable way to transition from the previous DJ's music.
(2) I'm continuing my effort to keep playing music by new artists.
(3) Moving from 2006 to early 1950's.
(4) This was a request from Stephanie - she danced with Haihan to good effect. Vishal had played an off-beat Cha Cha, Bachata and Merengue immediate before this. As I was getting ready, a new girl requested that I play Salsa next. That's … new. Usually the requests are for Merengue or Reggaeton. As for Salsa segment of his set, Vishal was playing rather large number of new-ish songs including No Pueden Vivir by Celia Cruz.
(5) Vishal took over again for the rest of the evening.

Total 13 songs. 11 Salsa including 2 new. 2 Bachata. I wanted to play at least one Cha Cha, but no such opportunities arose. As I was telling Vish at the ending of the evening, I played 40 songs last week and only 13 this week. It's quite random.

I hit someone's mouth with my forearm (close to the elbow) - but in some ways it felt like my arm was hit with her teeth. I feel rather sore - I hope she's not hurt any more than me. I think I only danced with 6-7 people, including the companion of the visiting DJ. I had one On2 dance with Mimi - she was practicing quite a lot with Sergio earlier. I accidentally tickled Mimi during the middle of the dance. Afterwards, I was able to tickle Mimi twice more without even touching her.

Probably my other dancing highlight involved the following sequence of events. Vishal put on a song lasting over 7 minutes. I started with Stephanie while Euvian started dancing with either Haihan or Rajiv next to us. After a little while, I noticed that Haihan and Rajiv were switching places during the dances. After a quick consultation with Stephanie, I hijacked Euvian away from Rajiv while Stephanie took Rajiv. After a little while, I changed places with Haihan. Afterwards, Rajiv, Haihan, Euvian and Stephanie started doing Rueda until the end of the song.

I felt like my form was off once again. Although I was socializing with large number of people and perhaps more so than usual - I also felt like I was being quieter than usual too. I guess I was in one of those moods - feeling detached, etc despite being surrounded by many friendly faces. The weather outside was still horrible when we left at closing time - it seemed fitting somehow.