Unending Epilogue 5

August 2009

How many times this month?

There was the Clavekazi anniversary part at the beginning of the month. Supposedly meetup.com group members received a discount, but only if you signed up for the right meetup group – I believe it was an official event for MD Salsa meetup and VA Salsa meetup group but not the DC Salsa meetup group on the account of DC group being on a vacation for the entire month of August (save their weekend NYC outing, which overlapped with the Clavekazi social). For whatever its worth, DC group by far has the largest membership, and VA and MD groups are organized jointly by another set of people. At least for now, organization via meetup site still is probably bigger than organization by facebook for the DC Salsa scene. It was a bit warm inside, and the musical selection for the last hour put me off a bit. Otherwise I found it a pretty enjoyable social.

Leaving the Clavekazi social, I was talked into a new night being started at Lucky Strikes in DC. I only realized after arriving that the text I had received said that the sender was the only On2 follower present – not that I consider myself On2 exclusivist or supremacist. It was okay especially considering there was no entry fee although the turnout was rather mediocre – blamed on a late-start on promotion. Some people I had not-too-great On2 dances gave me a pretty good On1 dances later in the evening. I was told other people had a pretty good impression of Lucky Strikes evening based upon their visit on subsequent weeks.

Second Saturday of the month took me to DC Dance Collective social, which has thus far been the place I’m most likely to be absent from thus far since moving here. The attendance was on the low side because of a competing party at The Salsa Room (a magazine release party for the Salsa Scene). I thought it was rather unfortunate that the release party was not organized for either the first, third or the fifth Saturday of the month, which would have enabled me to go to both events. For whatever its worth, the next magazine release party in October is also on the second Saturday – yuck. I wonder if this pattern will continue?

Anyhow given the relatively weak second Saturday and no prospect of interesting event the following weekend, I decided to hit Clarendon Grill for next two Mondays in a row as well as a trip to Barking Dog on one of the Tuesdays. The first Clarendon Grill night was particularly good, and the other two nights were pretty good too. The only complaint for Barking Dog was that the room was very warm – it did not seem like their AC was working properly. The fact that it was quite impossible to cool off in the warm room led to some not-so-pleasant conversation near the end of the evening. Two Bachata at Barking Dog was two more than usual for me at DC. The second Clarendon Grill night was made less than ideal probably because I ended up arriving rather late thanks to some ATM problems.

Fourth Saturday DC Dance collective was much better attended compared to the one two weeks earlier. Shaka Brown made an announcement that he is moving to Florida (but he plans to visit DC often still). I had gone on a 5-mile hike with Ignacio at the Sugarloaf mountain in the afternoon, and it seemed like my legs have gone out of shape with lack of exercise lately. So perhaps not surprisingly I ran out of energy fairly early. Otherwise this could have been an exceptionally good night. Also I was a bit frustrated with song selections starting from near the end of the first set of the first DJ (EricB?) and throughout the first set of the second DJ (Steve Martin) – too same too obscure too hardcore 60s-70s songs. Second sets by both DJs later were much more to my liking – although I was too tired to grab dance partners quickly enough by then. Since I seemed to have made a complaint about Steve Martin, I’ll try to limit damage (or perhaps get myself in bigger trouble) by saying that I’d rate Steve Martin as one of my top 5 (perhaps even top 3) social leads I enjoyed watching in the DC local scene.

Anyhow that led to a third Clarendon Grill Monday in a row. It was a reliably good CG night though nothing special by my CG standard. Here I was talked into visiting a place at National Harbor on the following Friday. This unfortunately ended up a fiasco, which I half expected I suppose. This particular event was advertised as an outdoor event, which seemed like a bad idea to me considering the hot humid summer weather we have in DC. Because the temperature was expected to be 69 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 20 degrees Celsius), I decided to at least take a drive there. Unfortunately when I arrived, I only glimpsed three couples dancing on the concrete floor and total of perhaps 10-12 people altogether. Entering seemed like a waste of 10 dollar cover, so I came back without further ado. It still cost me $11 for having parked the car for less than 20 minutes, however. Parking at the cheapest public garage costs at National Harbor $11 flat after 6 PM. Also I was drenched in sweat by doing nothing besides light walking at 70 degrees Fahrenheit – no doubt high humidity helped. Anyhow, it’s difficult to see me coming back to any event (Salsa or otherwise) to National Harbor.

Some new names I can now match with their face: Alexis, Orlando, Miranda, Leroy, Liz. Then there are old names I had forgotten to mention in previous epilogues: Ben, Diana, Cathy, Jen, Liz and Liz. For now, I’m only including people I think I can name reliably and people who I find more or less friendly towards me – latter of course is easy for people who come off seeming friendly to everyone. There are bunch of local people whom I can give check mark for only one of the criteria. Names mentioned in previous epilogues include Tanya, Jimmy, Luz, Leticia, Josh, Shaka, Earl, Tommy, Beto, Preston, Janet, Charissa, Brandon, Maylis, Cecilia.

I’m guessing I’ll be going out one more time this month – most likely this Monday thus making it four Mondays in a row. Oh well. Clarendon Grill is fine, but I wouldn’t have considered worth going four weeks in a row. Then again I am a bit put off by Barking Dog and would prefer to skip it for about a month if I can help it. There’s nothing interesting next weekend – the big event is the New York Salsa Congress, which I expect not to attend. So the only must event is the next DC Dance Collective social, which doubles as a birthday party for Tommy Smith who runs the event, still 2 weeks away. Ugh. Does that mean Clarendon Grill 5 weeks in a row??? [note added later: No chance of 5 weeks in a row because Clarendon Grill night is cancelled next Monday]

On topics other than Salsa, I’m now able to put more effort into writing and editing my manuscripts with some major distractions put to rest. I’ve also been taking some time exploring the strange world of K-Dramas. I also lifted self-imposed ban on facebook although I still have no plans to make use it as a blog or twitter type of device at this time.