Early Thursday Report

Yeah, still up.  But I feel pretty good.  Here's what's covered in this post:

1. Some stuff I left out regarding Amnesia this recent Monday
2. Dancing For Life's (DFL) second salsa social (it was better)
3. Latest on 10-22-05 rueda workshop with Nick Van Eyck
4. Latest on Alex'es rueda classes
5. Travel (mine and yours)

OK.  If I remember correctly I was doing a post about recent Monday at Amnesia and it got so late that I wasn't able to finish it coherently.  And somehow Tuesday morning it got erased.  So essentially I'm starting over.

We had slightly over 20 guys and gals there.  Not bad, eh?  I got some pictures.  A group pic, then a salsero pic for the gals and a salsera pic for the guys.  Here they are:

Next at Amnesia, here's a video, a composite video I was lucky to make without my editor crashing (but I did try something more ambitious that didn't work).  We do have some people, mostly ladies, who have been very faithful in coming to Amnesia regularly and first in the video you see Eddy dancing with one of them.  Next you see, I think Eddy dancing with one of the other guys there.  Being able to to dance 'follow', for a guy, is a very worthwhile skill to practice by the way.  Whatever side of the gender bar you fall on, you ought to try doing the 'other' part.  I guarantee it'll make you more appreciative and understanding of what your partner has to do plus it'll make you better at what you do.

Then last in the clip you'll see Eddy dancing with another gal who was there.

Here's the clip:

Next concerning Amnesia.....they've got a new DJ who's come into our community all the way from Los Angeles.  His name is Joe Purizaca, AKA "Joe Ritmo Latino".  Nice guy.  Easy to talk with.  He's also a realtor but DJ'ing is his primary passion .  He's got a website... http://www.vivalasalsa.com  and you can email him from there too. 

He does all the usual stuff, i.e. private parties, wedding, corporate functions, etc., that good DJ's do.  I asked him about periodically making some contribution to the blog and he said he would.

Here's a pic:

He's a good DJ.  I thought so and so did Eddy.  Actually it was Eddy who called to my attention when we were there that the music was somewhat better....or at least 'different'.  He suggested I go up in the booth and meet the new DJ guy and that's what I did.  I got a video and an audio clip....here:

And here's the Audio Generator clip I made up there in the booth.

So...all in all, Amnesia is slowly but surely getting better and better.  Eddy mentioned in class this Tuesday that Amnesia was going to be open on Wednesdays and I thought he meant this week but I didn't go over there tonight (or I should say 'last' night) so I don't know if it was or not.  Regardless, I think there is a market for someplace good to go on Wednesdays.  Personally I'd like to see Jeffrey Tisdales' salsa socials on Wednesdays at Dancing For Life prosper but I'll admit that some people might not feel that his studio is 'hard core salsa' enough for them so.......it remains to be seen how that venue will develop.  More on DFL next.

DFL

I was there tonight.  It started slow but Nicole was there.  Big Jim, from Eddys SWAT (right?) was there, Alex turned up.  Plus there initially were 3 or 4 other people I didn't know.  Nicole got a kick out of doing casino style with Alex. 

That's what Alex does you know.  He's a genuiene casinero.  He doen't do salsa like we do.  So Nicole, from her past experience with Reye Rodriguez and Eddy where she had already been exposed to some rueda.....she really enjoyed dancing with Alex.  I could tell  I also heard her mentioning that she's taking some ballroom style salsa and/or waltz now from a well known instructor in town.  To her her describe it, it's very enjoyable but also very challenging.

Jim and Ana (Jeffreys' wife and periodontist...from Spain)

Alex and Nicole (baby octopuses love her)

Jeffrey and Nicole.  Living proof that sea water is good for your skin.

As the evening wore on Jeffrey Tisdale, DFL owner/chief instructor, decided to go on a recon mission across the street to Elvias to see what was going on.  He did....and when he came back he told us he'd invited several people over there, to include Bjorn and Rebecca, to come over the DFL and enjoy our amiance too.  Which they soon did.

We were looking out the big glass wall in the studio and suddenly Elvias spills out a crowd of about 6 or 7 people heading our way.  They just walked across the street. It sorta reminded me of Australian 'pub crawling' or the way people cruise the clubs downtown on main street. 

So on the clip you also see their grand entrance.  I'm sure it was a first in Fondren Street history.  Here's the composite video:

So....that was a good evening worth of dancing and visiting.  Jeffrey also mentioned that he's going to 'float the floor' over there.  Meaning that right now it's a little too hard for as many hours as he spends dancing on it in a day.  He's going to pull it up and put some more bouncey stuff underneath it to make it a bit more friendly for long hours on it.

Latest on Nicks' workshop:

I'm certain it's 'on' now for the simple reason that Jeffrey confirmed that I can get one of his rooms economically enough.  So you can plan on it 'happening' even though it's not conclusive yet that it will be at DFL.  I want to discuss that with Sandra and/or Nick before I make that decision.

The potential exists, I believe, to also have it at either Chibcha or Amnesia but I've not discussed it yet with the management at either of those places.  Personally I like Chibcha but we'd have to be there relatively early in order to have time to fit in a 3 hour workshop and I'm not totally confident that I could rely on Chibcha management to 'be there' even if they said they would.

In any event Jeffrey's place might be better anyway because it's better lighted.  The only reason why we might want to have it in a real 'club' rather than a dance studio is because it would give us a place to dance afterwards.  So...I dunno about all that....yet.  But it'll happen even if it's just a handful of us because I'm guaranteeing the minimal costs.

Perhaps I should also mention that if any of you would like a private lesson with Nick (and Sandra is supposed to be sending me a 'bio' on him) then I'm sure he'd be glad to do it.  If that's what you want...you better tell me quick because he's going to have very, and I mean VERY, limited time here.  It'll probably work out that we'll get back from Austin sometime early afternoon on Saturday, he'll have time for a private or maybe two, then the workshop, then rest a brief bit, then we'll go somewhere and do some partying, then next day (Sunday) we'll get up and head back up to Austin.

I'm looking forward to it because it'll be a lot of good rueda experience for me and my interests.  Ya'll remember that you'll have the opportunity to run up to Austin with us and participate in his 3 hour rueda workshop up there too.  The repetition will be very good for you if you're wanting to learn rueda.  I think it'll be a fun weekend.

Alex's Casino/Rueda Classes

No, I don't know if it's "Alex'es" or "Alex's"....but you know what I mean.

Anyway.....he's still wanting to do it and I'm still going to help in any way I can and I'm still certain it will happen.  But right now I guess you could say we're still in the pre-publicity phase....i.e. doing what we can to expose as many people as we can to casino style and rueda so we can get up to the point where we'll be able to have a beginning class of 6-10 people.

I was discussing it with Alex today and we assume that within the initial group of 'students' there'll be a mix of different skill levels.  Once we determine what that is, I'll probably take the more basic levels and get their skill stabilized while Alex is working with the folks who are at the more advanced levels.  I think it's safe to say that for the first few class 'cycles' I'll be working with the beginners and Alex will be helping the more advanced students move along their development path.

One interesting element in this project, for me, is that I'm planning on going to the Rueda and Cuban Salsa Congress in Miami the second week of November and I think I'll learn a lot there that I'll be able to bring back to our budding casinero/casinera community here.  We're moving ahead aren't we?

Travel

I've taken some steps to learn something about the travel business.  I'm not 'into' it yet but I am going to be pursuing it and I think there's some potential for us, with our shared interest in salsa, to do some interesting travel oriented things together. 

I don't know if I mentioned it to you yet but a few weeks ago Rick Archer over at SSQQ was telling me that he's spending a lot of his time now in what he refers to as his 'cruise business'.  Yeah, it's apparently to the point where it's a real business to him.

I remember that back when I was a student over there they used to have a not-so-little clique of students who went on ski trips, cruises, etc. which, by the look of the pictures I saw and the newsletter articles I read, were a lot of fun.  So I've always wondered why 'we' can't try to do more of the same type of thing.

As for 'my' travel....I've already mentioned that I'm going to Miami but I'm also going to Salt Lake City, UT, the first weekend of November for the Xango National Convention.  I'm excited about it.  Xango is a great product, I'm starting to make a little bit of money with it, the company is growing rapidly and I'm looking forward to learning a lot about building my www.xangosalsero.com business.  As I've always said, in times as unpredictable as they are today, I think it just makes good common sense to diversify your income sources.  Ain't nobody cares about your retirement as much as you should.

That's all the news I've got tonight (or maybe I should say 'this morning').  Posts like this, that cover several topics, preclude very specific "headers" like I'd prefer to do.  But what with all the unpredictability of working with this video editing software and this computer that's OK-but-sorta-not, I just don't have the time like I used to to do these posts.  I guess it's a good problem to have though...in a way.

One more thing....if you're interested in the November 22 rueda workshop, I appreciate it very much if you'd let me know.  I promised it would happen....and it is, right?  We've come a long way in the last 6 months so if you've had some interest in learning this exciting style but have been sitting on the fence because you weren't sure somebody was going to make it happen...well....wake up, because it IS happening and you better get on board the train if you want to 'get a good seat'.  You're going to be in Tropicana or P59 or Amnesia sometime soon and see 10-20 people out there on the floor having a grand ol' time doing rueda and you're going to wish you knew how.