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6/14/2004

Chapter 12: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: Boston,City: New York,General — slaphappy @ 4:47 am

Chapter 12: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
________________________________________________________________

We woke up Monday morning after our first proper nights sleep since
the previous Wednesday. We had the buffet breakfast and went back to
our rooms to pack. Nik was to pick us up at lunch time after his
morning at work. We killed time by watching the in-room TV,
principally comprised of middle aged American women in full make up
with big hair telling us about “the importance of being a mother” and
other exciting subjects. Shiny men with names like Brently P Narwhal
told us about the weather and sports we were not interested in. We
checked out by leaving our key-cards on our beds and went down to the
lobby to wait for Nik. (more…)

Chapter 11: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: Boston,City: New York,General — slaphappy @ 4:45 am

Chapter 11: Escape From New York
_________________________________________________________________

I awoke around 8.30am, 4 ½ hours straight sleep. A record for our
time here so far but I knew that we would be ok sleep wise from now
on. I went out to get coffee for us both.

[I would make a lovely wife, but Ricardo already has one and despite
being in close proximity to him for days on end, seeing him several
times in his underwear and also having disinhibiting beer in his
presence, I can honestly say I have no ‘feelings’ for him].

We were both walking through a street market by 10.30am
and at Chinatown via a taxi for 11.30. (more…)

Chapter 10: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: New York,General — slaphappy @ 4:41 am

Chapter 10: At the Copa, Copacabana
_________________________________________________________________

Our El Barrio Taxi arrived downtown Manhattan around midnight. A
large queue had formed outside and around the New Copacabana [which
had replaced the former Less New Copacabana, that of course had
replaced the Quite Old Copacabana and of course there was the
Original Copacabana out there somewhere in the past too, sorry, where
was I?]. (more…)

Chapter 9: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: New York,General — slaphappy @ 4:39 am

Chapter 9: Who Loves Ya Baby?
_________________________________________________________

We headed out of La Fonda and the night air was distinctly chilly.
Making our way to the next block we passed through the neighborhood
basketball court and turned the corner. Lapiz stopped outside a high
mesh wire fence. “We’re here,” he said. (more…)

Chapter 8: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: New York,General — slaphappy @ 4:38 am

Chapter 8: Sweet, like Chocolate
________________________________________________________________

We piled into Janes car. Lapiz took the front passenger seat. As
Richie already commented on this I’ll refer back to his earlier post
for the following description:

– Jane’s driving skills and acute direction taking, or lack thereof… (more…)

Chapter 7: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: New York,General — slaphappy @ 4:36 am

Chapter 7: Un Gran Dia en el Barrio
_________________________________________________________________

The weather was still fantastic. The B Team arrived as their name
suggested, last, and Lapiz and Ricardo headed off to get us all
bottles of water to help us make it through the tour [by now the weather
was officially ‘hot’]. We all met underneath the statue of Duke Ellington
and were told that opposite was planned a similar one of Tito Puente.
Well, we were on TP Way so there should hardly be many objections. (more…)

Chapter 6: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: New York,General — slaphappy @ 4:18 am

Chapter 6: Looking for Soul Food and a place to eat
__________________________________________________________________

Casa Latina was easy to spot, the big sign ‘Casa Latina’ being over
the shop. We entered the fabled store and I handed the man who wasn’t
Vincente my list of wants. “You want all these?” he doubted. “No, the
ones starred are essential, I’ll let you select half a dozen more for
me. I’ll trust your judgement”. (more…)

Chapter 5: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: Boston,City: New York,General — slaphappy @ 4:17 am

Chapter 5: The Chinese Way
_________________________________________________________________

The taxi dropped us off in Boston?s small but perfectly formed
Chinatown. The ten minute taxi ride had cost us more than the 4 hour
bus trip to NYC which was a bargain at $10 each, single way. Now, for
that sort of money you might expect a no frills experience. That’s
exactly what you get. You also get additional Chinese downright
rudeness. There were obviously far too many people for the bus and
shouting matches were breaking out all over the place. (more…)

Chapter 4: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: Boston,General — slaphappy @ 4:16 am

Chapter 4: Ballroom Blitz
________________________________________________________________

Inside, the Boston Hilton looks like any other big city chain hotel.
Everything is nice. Everything is shiny. Everything is clean.

Everything is a bit soulless.

We made our way to the ballroom and on
entering could see someone looking suspiciously like a kick ass salsa
DJ. It was Nik preparing some of the music for that nights
performances. (more…)

Chapter 3: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: Boston,City: London,General — slaphappy @ 4:14 am

Chapter 3: No Sleep ?til Boston
__________________________________________________________________

The 3.10pm British Virgin Atlantic flight to Boston was packed. The
aisle seat of our row was taken up by a man called Paul from
Vermont. “Is that where they make Vermouth” I quipped, but he didn’t
seem to get the joke and explained to me in what I considered to be
too much detail all about his State. (more…)

Chapter 2: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: Boston,City: London,General — slaphappy @ 4:14 am

Chapter 2: London Calling
________________________________________________________

Ricardo entered my room in his underwear at 5.20am.

“Hey big boy, what took you so long” I said.
“We gotta get up, the taxi is here, we’ve overslept” was his reply.
Ten minutes later we were heading out of the door. (more…)

Chapter 1: UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: City: London,General — slaphappy @ 4:12 am

Chapter 1: Robin Hood & some merry men
__________________________________________________________

After packing the night before I set off from work in Lancaster
early. Nothing new there of course, but this time I actually had a
reason to finish early.

Following Ricardo’s directions to the letter I overshot the turn off
junction on the M6 and had to back track to Nottingham via the M42 at
Birmingham. So, the A50 is correctly known as the A500 I noted. This
was going well, I thought. The weather was very pleasant and I
cruised through Nottingham to the relaxed sounds of Son Boricua’s
Clasicos 60’s. (more…)

UK-BOS-NYC-BOS-UK, a “busy” weekend.

Filed under: General — slaphappy @ 4:08 am

This journal, 76 pages when printed, was originally posted in chapters on the SalserosCollective e-board. This edition corrects many of the original spelling and grammar errors [but probably creates new ones] and adds in about 30 recovered memories and follow up messages/information received once home. It appears here due to popular demand, but is far too long for those of you with the attention span of a newt, go read a ten line review of some club in Nebraska instead. (more…)

6/11/2004

Ryles Rave

Filed under: City: Boston,Clubs,General — on123567 @ 4:04 am

what a difference a week makes, or more accurately a dj makes. last night at ryles was rob’s dj debut and several on2 ladies were there (certainly not because of anything written in this blog). no complaints from me this time around.

but apparently one person’s blessing is another’s curse. a lady told the proprietor she wasn’t happy with the dj. when asked why, she said because he made all the on2 ladies show up and all the men were asking them to dance and she wasn’t asked as much as in other weeks. oooh! had i been there, i might have pointed out that her’s was not a problem that a few classes with april, ana, or burju couldn’t fix.

el gran combo and la india are in town this weekend for a joint concert. there will be several dancers from new york on stage including ahmed, desireé, gina, and kimberli. i haven’t been to wonderland ballroom (aka club lido) in a long time and am looking forward to it.

6/8/2004

Why some turn patterns are more memorable than others

Filed under: Classes,General,Instructors — on123567 @ 7:38 pm

I find that I remember for months turn patterns I learn from some instructors, while I don’t remember for a week turn patterns from others. This has been vexing me for a long time particularly since all the classes I take are by instructors teaching material I really like. I finally figured out why some are memorable and others aren’t.

Teachers, listen up. What follows may be the best nuggets of teaching advice you’ll come across in a long time. (more…)

cub cache

Filed under: City: New York,Clubs,General — xstasy @ 2:41 pm

thursday nights at club cache are the best in the ny salsa scene. i only wish it were earlier since i have to awaken very early to work it’s from 10pm-2am…nothing but non-stop salsa dancing in an open, addictive & positive environment.

i attended jimmy anton’s social on sunday- as usual- great. jimmy anton was DJing with another DJ- I’d like to tknow who he is bc i loved his selections- he didnt abuse the fast-paced stuff.

6/6/2004

Los Angeles Salsa Congress – Saturday

Filed under: City: Los Angeles,General — on123567 @ 3:52 am

Saturday 5/29/04:

Got to Salsa Land the same relatively early time in the evening, but there was already a line outside the performance tent. Right next door in the dance tent, DJ Nelson Torres was spinning to an empty dance floor (zero people). People were in their seats for more than half an hour before the show started and could have gone next door to dance but no one did. I asked Nelson and he said that was the only time slot he had all evening. Such a waste to have one of New York’s best DJs and no one dancing. (more…)

6/4/2004

Ryles rant

Filed under: City: Boston,Clubs,General — on123567 @ 6:01 am

water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. okay a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s how ryles felt last night if you were a male on2 dancer. a couple of us were trying to figure out why. it’s been the case more often than not for a few months now. the music is good, the floor is good, the night is crowded, the area is safe, parking is easy, but hardly any ladies dance on2. They are in the classes and in the dance groups, so it’s not that they don’t exist in this town.

people in dance groups were putting in extra practices getting ready for last weekend’s LA congress. perhaps things will improve now that’s over.

looking forward to the friday salsa night opening in cambridge in a couple of weeks. won’t spill the beans on its venue as that hasn’t been announced yet, but it has lots of potential.

6/3/2004

Los Angeles Salsa Congress – Friday

Filed under: City: Los Angeles,General — on123567 @ 5:17 pm

Friday 5/28/04:

In what became a pattern for the weekend, I spent much of the day either sleeping or making use of the free wireless internet at the Hilton lobby. I hadn’t registered for the workshops this year because in the past they’ve been too crowded to be useful. I suspect they might not have been crowded after all on account of their being at Salsa Land and not convenient to the hotel. (more…)

6/1/2004

Los Angeles Salsa Congress – Thursday

Filed under: City: Los Angeles,General — on123567 @ 3:14 am

Thursday 5/27/04:

Made it to Logan airport with much time to kill but not enough to pick up shoes forgotten at home. The highlight of an otherwise uneventful flight from Boston was the aerial view of “Salsa Land” as we were about to land at LAX. Salsa Land is the tent village set up in the parking lot of the Hollywood Park Casino and to be home for all the dancing activities planned for the congress weekend. I was curious how it would work out having all the workshops there instead of at the hotel as in previous years. (more…)

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