Jury rigged Friday

March 28, 2008

The light went out as I was getting ready to put my contacts on. As I turned off the faucet, I looked out the kitchen window and so that the lights were on for the neighbour next door. I walked to the other side and so that the house on the opposite side of the street also had power. Ali meanwhile went downstairs then outside before coming back to inform me that the flats and houses on our side were all affected as well by the power outage.

I was nearly ready to go anyway, so I gathered my things in the dark putting the contact lens case in my pocket and went down to my car. Vish had asked me earlier by e-mail to get to the club before Joe was finished because Joe needed to leave early tonight. It was 9:20, so I thought there was plenty of time as I drove around the city center listening to a new Ray Barretto compilation CD (well - mostly anyway since the CD mistakenly put a non-Ray Barretto song at the top of the list).

After putting my lens on at a slightly better lit area with reflective surface on my way down to the club, I ambled down to the middle of the class being run by Joe and Olga. I spotted a familiar face, whom I have seen about once a month for past three months and have been puzzling over regarding her identity and waved hello. I thought to myself, "Well. I had a feeling that she might pick this night of all nights to show up," as Joe took my out of my slumber by saying, "One of the CD player is broken. You should try to use your mixed CDs."

Vish had mentioned that one of the players was acting up and that I should ask for a CD lens cleaner from one of the staff. I quickly went to the DJ booth to check out the problematic CD player as Joe was also picking a song for the practice track - Night In Tunisia by Sonora Poncena (way slowed down as usual). The problem with the player was that it automatically rejected all inserted CDs. What a quandary! I was supposed to be the sole DJ all night for about 4 hours, and I never use nor made a suitable mix CD.

I checked the time - 9:40. So that means maybe 20 minutes and no more than 30 minutes before the social starts (since the first practice track was just being played now). I thought about going back home to grab some more CDs with songs of my own compilation. Also I thought about grabbing a cable that might enable me to use either my laptop or my iPod as the second source of music. Then I remembered the power outage - it might be a challenge getting everything in time in the darkness although I had a fairly good idea where everything was.

After vacillating a bit and walking up and down the stairs once or twice, I asked Olga to let Joe know that I'm going home to pick up some stuff and that I'll be back in hopefully 15-20 minutes. I went home and grabbed what I could in the darkness and hurried back. Even while I was driving back I remembered more things I could have taken with me from home - things I probably would have found with ease with lights on. When I came back, the final practice song was being played.

The first thing I tried was to hook up my iPod to the audio system. I was using a cable for hooking up my laptop to an AV device designed for use in the United States. I inadvertently grabbed this cable instead of the cable designed specifically for audio use only (blame the darkness and shortage of time). In any case, the setup did not seem to work. After the end of the class, Joe tried his hand with the cables and he found a combination that seemed to work more or less. It was only a bit later that I realized (thanks to a comment from one of the regulars) that I was getting proper input from only one of the two channels (the right side was not working).

So the whole session especially in the beginning was hairy and stressful. To compound matters, there were a lot of new people - many vocal about their opinion of music. As much as I could I used the CD player - generally playing two songs from one CD (often meaning two songs from same artists) and switching to the iPod for one song while I changed the CD.

Playlist

La Muy Muy – Roberto Torres
La Llave – Grupo Latin Vibe
Momposina – Santiago Ceron
Que Quiere La Nina – Kako Y Totico
Sin Sentimientos – Grupo Niche (1)
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon
Porque Adore – Mark Dimond & Frankie Dante (2)
Monte Adentro – Mana* (3)
No Hay Mal Que No Venga – Mana*
Thinking Of You – Lenny Kravitz (Salsa remix)
Quitate La Mascara – Ray Barretto
Swing La Moderna – Ray Barretto*
Almendra – German Villarreal
Como Lo Hacen – Tommy Olivencia (canta: Frankie Ruiz)
Periquito Pin Pin – Tommy Olivencia (later version canta: Hector Tricoche?)*
A La Yumbae – Tommy Olivencia (4)
Apretoncito – Toque De Keda (5)
Mi Tierra – Gloria Estefan (6)
La Gitana – Jose Alberto “El Canario”*
La Paella – Jose Alberto “El Canario”
Aicha – Africando (7)
La Fruta Bomba – Fruko Y Sus Tesos (8)
El Swing De Fruko – Fruko Y Sus Tesos
Temba Tumba Timba – Los Van Van (9)
No Aguanto Mas – Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco (10)
Senora – Domenic Marte (11)
Usted Abuso – Celia Cruz & Willie Colon
Caballero Y Dama – Celia Cruz & Willie Chirino
Abran Paso – Larry Harlow (Orchestra Harlow canta: Ismael Miranda)
Mambo Gozon – Tito Puente (Mambo Birdland)
Ran Kan Kan – Tito Puente (Mambo Birdland)
Vitamina – Sonora Carruseles
Conmigo – Eddie Palmieri
Muneca – Eddie Palmieri
Cali Aji – Grupo Niche (12)
El Negrito De Batey – Direct Latin Influence (+10%) (13)
Tu Amor Me Hace Bien – Marc Anthony
La Muerte – El Gran Combo
Ojos Chinos – El Gran Combo
Ave Maria Lola – Roberto Torres
Hace Tiempo – Angel Canales
Lejos De Ti – Angel Canales
Lluvia Con Nieve – Mon Rivera*
Sun Sun Babae – Tito Rodriguez (-5%)*
La Toalla – Tito Rodriguez (-5%)*
Push Push Push – Joe Cuba Sextet
El Que Se Fue – Gilberto Santa Rosa*
Fragile – Massimo Scalici
Valio La Pena – Marc Anthony (14)
Mambo Diablo – Tito Puente (80s version)
Mambo Gallego – Tito Puente (80s version)

(1) Everything but the kitchen sink. Or was it everything including the kitchen sink?
(2) This is when I was informed that I was only getting half of the speakers working when playing music from my iPod.
(3) Unintended song. Bad labelling compounded by not checking to make sure it was the right song beforehand. There were a lot of distractions.
(4) I knew I had to play Merengue at some point. My problem of course is that I have very limited choice so I need to use them sparingly and not run out. At least for one woman (new to me), it seemed like the party did not start until I played a Merengue. However, she seemed with much of music choices afterwards.
(5) Merengue wasn’t super popular, but Bachata was even less so.
(6) It was a request – second or third choice or so after saying negative to La Vida Es Un Carnaval, etc. On one hand, I think I might want to avoid buying a copy.
(7) New complaint. She wants Reggaeton. Failing that something faster and lively.
(8) Instant response. I’m not going to bother slowing the songs.
(9) I had to move in some direction, right?
(10) It seemed like a good time to take my second Merengue shot of the night.
(11) Not a good Bachata night for sure.
(12) Not lively enough still? Apparently so.
(13) Third and final Merengue of the night. I’m out of ammunition. Every other Merengue I have is either untested or have been unpopular in previous attempts.
(14) Another request.

Total = 50 songs. 3 Merengue. 2 Bachata. 1 Cha Cha (Boogaloo), 44 Salsa including 8 new.

Exhausting. What a favor I'm doing for Vish. At least it wasn't a disaster as I said to Sharon when it was over (I had two dances with her to the last two songs of the night).