The best south side had to offer

September 30, 2007

I only saw one word on the sign – “south.” Uh oh. There was a couple behind me too. I told them that the other room is quite a bit smaller. I hesitated for almost a minute before going in. I peered in and spotted Natalie. Ed too. I also saw Rico later. In any case I couldn’t quite get myself to turn back and return to Cambridge.

It wasn’t too bad. My first dance was with Natalie – I was really happy to see her again – as always. I was also happy to see a woman I had a really nice dance with last time and even happier to see that she recognized me - it probably helped that we had a nice brief chat afterwards last time. I didn’t get around to dance with her until around 10:20 (I looked for a couple of times before, waiting for a good song, etc), and it was good too. There were many other dances I enjoyed too. Generally I liked the way the evening went – especially compared to the last time, which I considered merely adequate in all regards including me myself and the way I danced. For the most part, the room did not become a sauna – air conditioning was working better than pretty much every other time SOS was held on the South side of the Royal Sonesta Hotel.

The music was to my liking too. Aside from a short stretch around 10-10:15, it was great. I can’t recall recognizing so many of the songs without disliking many of the selections. Probably my least favorite selection was a new version of “Lady” – and even that is not so bad. Other songs included Los Rumberos (Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante), Trucutu (a different version), Vamonos Pa’l Monte (version I didn’t recognize), El Abaniquito (Pucho), Abran Paso (Larry Harlow & Ismael Miranda or Orchestra Harlow), Me Prendiste Velas (Oscar D’Leon – I’m not sure if I’m remembering this right), Un Dia Bonito (version unknown), Periodico De Ayer (version unknown), and a few other songs from Club Salsa I don’t know the title but like anyway. The DJ tonight was someone named Sylvester – it looked like he was carrying 400-600 CDs including a half dozen Cachao CDs like Dos.

Finally I thought I would have a real try at "judging" people's dancing (non-public) - no names to minimize what probably already is a remote possibility that anyone involved would hear of this. The whole thing came about with R saying something about going to the Congress and being intimidated by presence of many good dancers. R went on to mention a friend of S being extremely good – even better than L and so on. I said that I’ll try to keep a lookout and see for myself. Much later I did get an opportunity while taking a break. I was not very impressed. It wasn’t bad (quite decent in fact), but I didn’t think it was anything to write home about. I have seen better looking dance countless times at SOS (with caveat that beauty is in the eye of the beholder). Of course it could have been because of problems with lead-follow dynamics with the dance partner - M in this case. Would I get in trouble for writing this? Who is most likely to become upset? R, S, L, M or friend of S? I suspect it would depend first and foremost on their personality followed by their perception (if any) of me.

The last word from Tamambo was that SOS will be back on the north side next week. With the UK Congress looming the weekend after that, I doubt I'll go unless there's an outside pressure.

Speaking of the UK Congress, preliminary schedules (party, shows, workshop, etc) are out. A couple of notable items. Claudia is back - I wonder if I will have any better talking with her. If I could be bothered to show up for workshops, I suspect I'll be hanging out with On2 people