No Brawls Thankfully

October 17, 2008

That was different! No more of the same old uneventful boring night. Instead the night was action-packed, at least for me.

Vish was away; I don’t know where. Joe was going to leave early. In fact I think Joe only played 2 or 3 songs so I was in the DJ booth right after arriving. Joe suggested keeping the speed of the songs slow but upbeat – a lot of beginners around. I looked around. It was no different than usual.

Johnny was there early. I think they had to change the teaching venue at the last minute and couldn’t use the venue for social afterwards so most people moved over to CS tonight. No Serap though; I haven’t seen her in ages.

Playlist

Momposina – Santiago Ceron (1)
Sientate Ahi – Oscar D’Leon
Camina Prende Y El Fogon – Conjunto Yumuri
La-La-La – Direct Latin Influence (2)
Almendra – German Villarreal (3)
El Menu – El Gran Combo
Prestame Tu Mujer – Grupo Gale
Soulsa – Estrellas Caiman (4)
This Moment – Azabache
Dos Locos – Monchy & Alexandra (5)
El Agua Del Clavelito – Johnny Pacheco
Asi Son – El Gran Combo (6)
Boranda – Sonora Poncena (shortened remix) (7)
Mentirosa – Louie Ramirez & Ray De La Paz
La Libertad – Rey Reyes
Esta Cobardia – Frankie Ruiz
Mambologia – Maximo Rodriguez & Sus Estrellas Panamenas
Nadie Como Ella – Marc Anthony
No Aguanto Mas – Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco
Pecado – Toque D Keda
Que Bonito Es Puerto Rico – Jose Alberto “El Canario”
Swing La Moderna – Ray Barretto (8)
Dejame En Paz – Johnny Colon (9)
Salchicha Con Huevos – Jimmy Sabater con Son Boricua (10)
Bamboleo – Fania All Stars
Ven A Medellin – Grupo Gale
Juana Pena – Willie Colon (11)
Ojala Que Llueve Cafe – Juan Luis Guerra
No Hado Facil – Monchy & Alexandra* (12)
Cuando Te Vea – Tito Puente
Yay Boy – Africando
Que Bonito Es Sonar – Jimmy Bosch
Cairo – Orquesta Cheo Diaz (-5%)*
Ajiaco Caliente – Eddie Palmieri
El Cepillo – Fulanito
I Wanna Love You – Pablo Bachata
Mambo Mongo – Mongo Santamaria (Fania) (13)
Esas Lagrimas – Gilberto Santa Rosa
Quiero A Morir – DLG (Dark Latin Groove)*
Rompe – Daddy Yankee
A Pedir Su Mano – Juan Luis Guerra
Playa Fa Sho – Toby Love
Ay Amor, Cuando Hablan Las Miradas – Orquesta Guayacan (14)
Caballo Viejo – Roberto Torres
El Negrito De Batey – Direct Latin Influence
Quiero Enamorarte – Marco Ferretti
Periodico De Ayer – Hector Lavoe (15)
Bailando – Frankie Ruiz
Aicha – Africando (16)
Otra Oportunidad – Jimmy Bosch (17)

(1) Definitely slow. Upbeat? Well... maybe not especially. Contrast is good.
(2) Steph got me for this one. On2. After I stopped the next track from playing at the same time. DJ techinque-wise, it wasn't the smoothest of the nights. Dancewise, we both went off time once or twice. I wasn’t quite settled in. It didn’t stop people from watching and commenting afterwards. Playing the next song was a little messy.
(3) Haihan and Weishen are here. No Ivan, Mark or Jane.
(4) Sally is here too promoting Salsa Del Este. She stole my pen a few times causing confusion.
(5) A girl (Turkish?) asked me to dance to this one. Another surprise! New partner for new dance with some irregular timing made this a challenge. I also picked a difficult song to transition into.
(6) Sally stole my pen again! I borrowed one from Steph.
(7) I got into a really interesting (maybe call it heated) argument around here. Apparently someone scratched [let’s say Mr. X’s] car, and X thought it was me. Again. I say again because X convinced me about two years ago that I probably did (and I gave him my insurance info and called my insurance company to pay him for repairs). It wasn’t me this time. Unfortunately it seemed quite impossible to convince him otherwise. Two years ago, I had a reason to think that I might have been responsible, but this time there was absolutely nothing that made me think it happened again. X claimed that it must have happened last Friday. However, I arrived at CS before X (while the lessons were still underway) and left after X (at the time of early closing). Nowadays I almost always park in an isolated space away from all other cars when coming to CS, and last Friday was no different. Moreover X had not even parked in the same car park! Amazing. X then tried to suggest that it might have happened on a Wednesday. I haven’t been to CS on Wednesdays in more than a year! How about the week before? Again I am pretty sure I parked away from all other cars. I suspect for last 2-3 months if not more, I always arrived before X and left after X. For whatever its worth, I don’t remember even coming near hitting any car anywhere for years anywhere let alone CS. It was quite bizaare. I felt like I was in some alternate reality or such. The only thing X could focus on was the color of paint left on his car, which he claimed matched mine (like red/burgundy is such a unique color). In the end I could do little but laugh about it. I wasn’t the only one laughing. No one will believe claim like this based on color of the paint. X claimed that his car paint was on my bumper – I have no idea what that was about except maybe he was trying to browbeat me into admitting something I did not do. Two years ago, it didn’t take much for him to convince me that I was responsible. Why was it so easy for me to admit the “truth” back then (actually tonight’s incident makes me wonder if I was really responsible two years ago) yet I would be so intent on “lying”? Maybe I’m being really stupid writing this account, but then again it seemed like X was telling anyone and everyone that I hit his car. So it’s not like this is going to make things any worse. Maybe X will apologize to me for false accusation, intimidation and throwing insults next time - maybe not. It doesn’t matter to me. One last humorous point - the incident did keep me from visiting the toilet for about half an hour or so; I didn’t want to get punches thrown at me.
(8) Pavlov reaction from Haihan.
(9) Nice reaction from that old timer who knew Tony from way back.
(10) Another with Steph.
(11) Party pooper from Haihan.
(12) Wow. I didn’t realize I went so long without playing something brand new.
(13) Spinfest with Steph.
(14) Rajiv still here and dancing with Sharon on this one. He’s doing some different things. Cool.
(15) I stopped Sharon from leaving for a dance with her.
(16) This was supposed to be the last song.
(17) Cries of one more song led to this one with lights left on. I also ended up dancing (starting with simple sway then a couple of basic steps) with woman who just came down moments ago - at her male escort's request.

Total = 50 songs. 1 Cha Cha. 1 Reggaeton. 4 Merengue. 5 Bachata including 1 new. 39 Salsa including 2 new.

I got me a ticket for Salsa Del Este party. Other excitements included a broken wine bottle in the DJ booth. Cristian and Sandra made a very brief appearance at the end of the night. Did Sally request Bachata?