Home Away From Home

March 29, 2009

I was groaning and moaning in disgust as I finally made it to bed closer to 4 than 3. What an unfortunate time for the daylight saving hour to begin. Not that I would have liked it to start next week or the week after it. Perhaps two weeks ago would have worked nicely. Personally I could do without it – just stick to one time or the other.

It was a struggle to get up shortly after 9 to head back to work where the one final Sunday morning experiment in the UK waited. This was an intense session – hardly any time for a break even for short lunch. When I was finally ready to go, it was past 7 meaning taking the train option was no good. In any case, I felt I needed to come back after dancing anyway so I drove.

Traffic was light. I made the trip in what may have been a personal best time. I’ll take favors from Tyche wherever I can get. After another fish and chips (I think the fish that melts in your mouth from the Café Valencia before SOS outings is one of things I’ll definitely miss about the UK – their chips are nothing to write home about though), I was ready to go.

The queue at the SOS was again very slow moving. I have no idea why it takes some people so long to pay to get in. The social seemed to have just started, and the DJ had put on Babarabatiri by Willie Rosario. As the queue finally started moving after whoever was causing the bottleneck had disappeared, I took a peek at the DJ booth and was surprised and pleased to see Sean there.

It was as if the madmen have taken over the asylum. There had been some rumblings about the choice of music at SOS for a long time (make it a constant steady stream of complaints), and this seemed to mark a dancer deciding to take over. This meant I was able to recognize somewhere between half to three quarters of the songs getting played. Later in the evening another dancer I have seen for a while (named James) took over. Tamambo dubbed them WBE (White Boys Entertainment). There also was a live Conga player.

The songs they played included La Ley Del Guaguanco (or similar by Tito Rodriguez), Cuando Te Vea (Tito Puente), Rebelion (I think it was Joe Arroyo), Brujeria (Mark Dimond), No Critiques (twice! Manny Oquendo), Arinanara (Eddie Torres Mambo Kings Orch), Cinturita (Eddie Palmieri), Lluvia Con Nieve (Mon Rivera), La Palomilla (Joe Cuba), Siguelo (which version? – seemed pretty close to Javier Vazquez), an unknown Charanga version of Bilongo (?), Bomba Carambomba (Sonora Poncena), Bajo Con Tumbao (Eddie Palmieri). There’s more … I’m fairly sure there was a SHO? Noche De Salsa (or something similar sounding)? Never mind familiar sounding songs with titles I don’t know.

At one stretch, I thought I was back in Cambridge listening to a combination of Sally and Vish of old (for Vish when he was playing for the LA-crowd) and said so to Liam. It also made me wonder how much variety could be expected with multiple DJ sessions from them given so many of the songs played seemed to be from the best of the UK favorites. In any case, it meant that I was dancing more than my usual share by my recent SOS standard. I suppose that now matters to me more than the future – given I don’t expect much of one for me personally given my impending move.

It was one of the more fun SOS nights ever with many highlights.

After one dance (it might have been a Cha Cha – possibly with Helen), I heard the start of No Critiques and saw Miriam right in front of me unoccupied. I was like what the heck and decided to ask her for a dance – I think this was my only second time ever even though I’ve been coming to SOS for more than 4 years (and I imagine I was a familiar face for at minimum 2 years for her). The dance was going okay although I never had the illusion that I was giving her the best dance of her life. Then it was time for a long section ripe for shines. She was doing set shines (and she has tons of those) but certainly not in a set sequence while I was just moving to the music while also trying to blend with what she was doing and somehow keeping up. It was quite challenging and I frankly was feeling rather outclassed in many ways and perhaps looking a little awed. But the music really dictated that the shine section be continued – so I did. And it went on and on and on. It was fun but hard. I probably would have simply chalked it up to experience except she thanked me at the end smiling and saying it was lovely or something like it. Alright! I’ve arrived! I’ll gladly drink that ego-booster. Again I have no illusion that it was the best dance of night for her but it was certainly at minimum a sign not to wait for another six months before asking her again. Too bad I’m leaving soon (or maybe it’s great to leave on a high note).

Heck ego-boosting compliment aside, I think there were quite a number of dances I enjoyed as much and possibly more tonight as the one with Miriam. (Frankly I don't have energy to dance like that for more than a few songs a night before needing a long break.) This time I had about the same number of really good dances with On1 and On2. For whatever its worth I think I tried lead more than my usual share of irregular improvised moves for SOS. (One of which did not work well with multiple attempts with multiple partners – I usually don’t continue with things that don’t work and I am not sure why I kept it up. If I remember correctly, I tried it first with Miriam with poor success so I probably wasn’t leading it well. It really makes me wonder what I was thinking. Answer: I wasn’t doing it deliberately.)

One of the thanks I received was in French. Hmm. A non-English speaking Frenchwoman visiting England for Salsa? It seems unlikely. Or simply saying merci automatically out of habit or out of oxygen? (After all, I probably was saying thank you rather than merci most of the time after the dances when I was visiting Paris.) Possibly consciously declaring her foreign-ness or superiority of the French language, etc?

I was soaking wet within the first hour. Usually I avoid that until the last 30 minutes or so. Good times. I’m going to miss SOS too. Despite it being outside Cambridge, it often felt more like my Salsa home than any other place. Maybe other socials (e.g. Jimmy’s) will eclipse it in my estimation one of these days. Maybe not. I don’t know how future will turn out.

One thing for certain – the next one (April 19) will be my last one as an English resident (and possibly for good). Liam suggested dinner beforehand. I’ll check with Sergio too. Maybe others will ask to join. Who knows?

In the end, I went back to work. Until 2 AM this time. Two more official work days to go – then I’ll have time for things like haircut.