SalsaFrenzy Blogs Web diaries (blogs) by Salsa dancers. Anyone can post or comment.

12/11/2005

SalsaFrenzy adding City Forums

Filed under: City: Boston,General,Site Updates — SalsaFrenzy II @ 1:43 am

SalsaFrenzy is setting up discussion forums for different cities. This to help travellers looking for tips on where to dance in other cities and to give exposure to the salsa scenes in different towns, countries, etc. We’ve started with forums for Boston, Denver, Puerto Rico, and Tokyo:

http://www.salsafrenzy.com/forum/

For each city forum we start, there are one or two volunteers willing to act as “city helpers”. They’ll respond to posts and guarantee that questions don’t go unanswered.

If you are in Boston, Denver, Puerto Rico, or Tokyo, tell your friends and feel free to post announcements of local classes, workshops, club nights, and concerts. If you would like to see a forum added for your city or region, let us know. We’ll add a forum for a town as soon as we have two volunteers willing to answer questions about its salsa scene.

We are particularly interested in adding forums for small towns and far away places with hidden or emerging salsa scenes (Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America). If you are from one of those towns or countries and would like to get a lot of exposure for your salsa scene, let’s talk. SalsaFrenzy is a widely and frequently visited site, particularly by people wanting to learn about other places and people.

10/18/2005

SalsaFrenzy Salsa Minutes #1

Filed under: City: Boston,General,Site Updates — SalsaFrenzy II @ 12:42 pm

SalsaFrenzy has kicked off a little project called “SalsaFrenzy Salsa Minutes”. These are video podcasts of salsa dance footwork, partner combinations, and snap interviews with salsa personalities.

The first Salsa Minute features a short partner combination demonstrated by Julie and Danny and introduced by Michelle. Video podcast on Sunday October 16, 2005 from Wepa Salsa Sundays at Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

You can view it by downloading it in any of the following formats: M4V (9.4 mb), MP4 (10.7 mb), or AVI (28.3 mb).

Check it out and stay tuned for more to come.

8/28/2004

The real thing?

Filed under: City: Boston,General — SalsaFrenzy II @ 10:22 am

In recent emails announcing his congress, Boston promoter Olaf sought to clear up a confusion by saying:

we’re having a bit of naming confusion on account of the “1st Annual Boston International Salsa Congress” that was put on by New York promoters at the Logan Airport last April, but this is the 4th annual real thing.

It’s reasonable to want to clear up any confusion people might have about which event is which, but calling one the “real thing” suggests the other isn’t – some sort of copy or cheap imitation. Better to promote one’s events on their own merit without taking swipes at others’. People who attend can make up their own mind about each.

Here’s my take on the name confusion. As any long time Boston salsa dancer knows, Olaf called his congress in its 3 prior years the “SalsaBoston mini-congreso”, the “2nd Annual New England Salsa Congreso”, and the “3rd Annual New England Salsa Congreso”. For whatever reason, he didn’t call it the “Boston Salsa Congress” those years. It’s only after April and David Melendez adopted that name for their congress and web site (BostonSalsaCongress.com) that Olaf wants to use that name. Seems to me an attempt to create confusion rather than clear it up.

I don’t mind there being two or even three congresses in Boston (e.g. Olaf’s New England Salsa Congress and April/David’s Boston Salsa Congress), but I would like to see organizers do their own thing without sniping at or swiping from each other.

8/5/2004

Goings on in Boston

Filed under: City: Boston,General — SalsaFrenzy II @ 1:11 pm

In mid-July, Jeff organizer of Havana Club nights, announced on the SalsaFrenzy Forum a weekly Tuesday night at Ryles. I had learned of this a couple of days prior and also learned how it had come about. Jeff had approached Ryles with the interest in moving his Friday night there (after it didn’t work out at the Greek Ballroom in Central Square) without informing Suzanne and April, respectively organizers of Temporada Latina on Thursdays and Wepa Sundays. I thought it was an unfriendly move on his part and wrote to him privately pointing out that he had built his nights in part with the support of fellow local promoters and for him to move against their interests was problematic and that the success of any salsa night is ultimately a function of the goodwill extended to it by the community. (more…)

Tumbao Tuesdays pictures

Filed under: City: Boston,Clubs,General — SalsaFrenzy II @ 11:04 am

Pictures from this Tuesday’s Tumbao Tuesdays are up on the Gallery. Ana and Joel performed. A friend there who was a sceptic early in the night left a very happy camper.

7/15/2004

tumbao tuesdays

Filed under: City: Boston,Clubs,General — on123567 @ 6:47 pm

this past tuesday (7/13) was the opening night of tumbao tuesdays a “salsa meets sushi” night at a japanese restaurant in copley square, boston. the first thing i noticed walking into the dance room was the floor. it was spotless and at least at the beginning of the night, you could have eaten your sushi off it. it seemed almost profane to be wearing street shoes on it.

the layout of the room reminded me of the green street grill, a rectangle with bench seats along the two sides, except this was bigger and a much nicer floor. the music courtesy of dj d martinez and the sound system were great. the only problem (hopefully a short lived one) was the low turnout, presumably on account of the rain that night.

the location is good, it’s a 2 minute walk from the copley t-stop, and it looked like there was ample street parking. i plan on bringing friends there next week. some pictures now available in the gallery.

6/19/2004

havana club friday night salsa

Filed under: City: Boston,Clubs,General — on123567 @ 8:44 am

last night’s grand opening of a friday night in cambridge was… grand.

i got there around 9:45 and a class by johnny and felicita was still in progress. they on the stage leading some footwork and scores of people on the dance floor following diligently. the ballroom of the greek american political club were this is held is large with an all wood floor. the bottle of baby powder i had proved popular as most but not all the floor felt sticky. (more…)

6/15/2004

el gran combo and la india concert at club lido – wow

Filed under: City: Boston,Clubs,General — on123567 @ 10:16 pm

that was an awesome concert last saturday (6/12) at club lido.

jose masso, the night’s mc, started with a rapid fire introduction of the night, its organizers and set the tone. he acknowledged ahmed and april, the nyc dancers they brought to dance on stage, and april’s recent boston salsa congress. (more…)

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 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…)

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.

6/4/2004

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.

4/24/2004

Boston Congress Dispatch

Filed under: City: Boston,General — SalsaFrenzy II @ 6:07 pm

Here’s a brief dispatch from the Boston congress after the first night and day of workshops at the Hilton. The opening party last night (Friday) was well attended by local and visiting dancers. Performances were well received, particularly those of Ana & Joel (got a standing ovation), Hips on Fire (nice tricks), Latin Enchantment (Philly/New Jersey), Mambo Dinamico (North Carolina), Mambo Mike (a street bum drowning his sorrows with alcohol and Mambo from Chicago), Piel Canela (New York), and Salseros Unidos (very synchronized and clean number by a large dance group from Philadelphia). (more…)

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