Sorin's Blog - tango, motorcycles and misc other

Did you know we haven't danced in a while?

2010-03-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

I hear this comment once in a while. What I rarely hear is "We haven't danced in a while, is there any particular reason?" Because there is generally a reason and if you knew the reason you can make an informed decision on doing or not doing something about it.

Generally speaking, (to the extent that is possible), I stop dancing with people when there is something in their dancing that bothers me to the point where i can't stand it anymore. In most cases it has to do with the embrace. Some clamp my arm to the point it stops the blood flow to it, some are leaning on me, some are leaning back pulling me off my axis, etc.

If you go to a practica, it's presumably to get better. Ask the people who you like to dance with what they would change in your dancing. You don't have to change, but you should know what people thing you need to change.

Skipped a tango practica to work on a non-tango project

2009-09-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

So it finally happened. Last night, instead of going to the Monday MIT practica like I've been going every monday I've been physically able to (as in, in town and not sick), I stayed home to work on my camera project.

Surprisingly, the sun still rose in the morning, the sky didn't fall and some progress was made on the camera project. Amazing.

My other project, tango this time, is that we'll be starting teaching group classes in Central Sq (Cambridge) in October. So now I'm working on flyers, online ad campaigns and all sorts of other marketing schemes to get people in the class.

We will be starting with a 3 hour "Introductory" Argentine Tango class for "civilians". If you have any friends who you want to introduce to this addictive obsessio... err... hobby, send them to us.

Found lost video (non-tango post)

2009-09-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

In 2006, at the height of my motorcycle insanity, I made a trip to Tennessee/North Carolina to ride the motorcycle on the fantastic mountain roads they have there. There is one stretch of road in particular which has 319 turns in 11 miles. This video only covers the last couple of miles. The road has a nickname, "The Dragon's Tail". This video was shot with my camcorder mounted on the right side of the bike, about two feet of the ground (when the bike is upright). As you can see in the video, it doesn't stay at two feet of the ground for two long ...

Domestics ...

2009-08-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

Tuesday one of my tenants water heater developed a leak and her bathtub faucet broke at the same time. So yesterday I took the day off to install another water heater and fix the faucet. A couple of years ago, I called a plumber, and the whole deal cost me almost $900. This time, I got the heater from craigslist for $100 (almost new) and spent the most of the day installing it and fixing the faucet. Grand total, $130.

One of the reasons I miss BsAs, it's because it wasn't real life. There were no water heaters to break, no weeds to clean, no lawn to mow, no insurance companies to deal with, almost all the "problems" were related to tango. Ha.

Maybe that's why dancing there is so good, not only there are many great dancers, but a lot of them leave all the problems they have at home, in a land far away, and bring with them only their passion for dancing. But the problems are not gone, they are just on hold.

BsAs 2009 - The End (part 4)

2009-08-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

It's been over a week since I got back to Boston. It feels like a month. I can't believe it was only 2 weeks ago I was DJing at El Beso. Someone told me after I got back that they hate dancing with people who just came back from BsAs. She was sort of joking, but I know what she meant. It's like dancing with someone who just had an amazing dance with someone else. Because it's very likely they are not "there" with you one 100%.

There are people I really enjoy dancing with in Boston. They should know who they are. I just wish they would actually come out more often. So when I walk in a milonga here, I won't immediately wish I was south of the ecuator.

BsAs 2009 - The End (part 3)

2009-08-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

It Tuesday and I just arrived at the office. It's been only 4 days since Friday, yet it seems so much longer. Normalcy surrounds me and I have no taste for it. I'm clinging to memories, but are they real? Do I remember things the way they were, or the way I would've wanted them to be? Does it matter?

My motorcycles were waiting for me in the garage. I rode the Blackbird to work today. It was nice. It used to be exhilarating. My vegetable garden is overrun by weeds. I can't get myself to care too much. A new camera I purchased while I was away was waiting for me at home. I was hoping it would re-ignite my interest in photography. Maybe it will. My camera project (a DIY camera kit I've been designing for months now) is waiting for me to continue it. I'll get to it at some point.

Now I'm heading to a meeting. How exciting...

BsAs 2009 - The End (part 2)

2009-08-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

After 58 consecutive nights of dancing with some of the best dancers from across the planet, going back to every day life will be hard. Avoiding getting depressed will be a challenge. One Monday I'm dancing in Salon Canning until 4AM, next Monday I'm in Boston where the only event is a tiny practica that goes from 9pm to 11pm.

One cannot not question the sanity of what I've been doing for over three years now, putting so much of myself, not too mention money and resources into an activity that resembles in effect doing drugs. Every time you get a "high", the dose required for the next one is higher. There comes a point where there is simply not enough "dose" available to get the high, then what?

In the last few weeks in BsAs I had some dances that were so intense, so amazing, that I can't imagine what will I be doing now, away from it all. I guess that is something I need to figure out.

BsAs 2009 - The end (part 1)

2009-07-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

I have very little time, but I wanted to write something while I'm still in BsAs. I will write a much longer follow up in the plane.

I had some amazing dances/experiences during this trip. I am sad to leave it all and happy I could experience it. Thank you all for EVERYTHING and I hope to see you all soon. You know who you are.... ;)

Hasta la próxima

BsAs 2009 - Swine flu

2009-07-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

So far, a few venues closed, some are taking it week by week, Practica X closed for the entire month of July. As long as not ALL of them are shutting down, this might not be as bad, as now with less options, there is less dispersion. Last night at Canning there were quite a few good dancers, which I never saw there last time I passed by on a Monday night. Will see how this goes...

BsAs 2009 - Tango 24/7?

2009-07-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

There is this idea I used to have that tango in BsAs is 24/7. Well, I wish it was, but at least right now, it's not even close. Most people don't even arrive at milongas before midnight, and dancing goes till about 2 during the week or 4 during the weekends. Some milongas, like La Viruta might go longer, but most people dance between midnight and 3. While there are milongas in the evenings and afternoons, I was unable to find many where I would like to dance at. The ones I found are Glorieta on Sat & Sun (mostly on Sundays) from 8pm to 10pm (ish), and Villa Malcom on Mondays (9pm to midnight). Neither are particularly busy at this time of the year, but there are some good dancers attending them.

So, if you're coming here during the same period, you better have something to do during the morning, day and evening.

Close Embrace + Push Up Bras = Awkward Open Embrace

2009-07-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

I debated if I should write about this, as it seems to be one of the more taboo subjects. But hell, I'm not exactly known for being politically correct so there you go.

More often then one would think, I dance with women wearing bras designed to make their breasts look larger. Generally, by pushing them up. I am not debating here the aesthetics of this choice. I am debating the wisdom of wearing something that makes close embrace awkward or impossible, depending on the specific choice and circumstance. I recently danced with a woman who is undoubtedly a good dancer, and she appeared to have a very nice close embrace (which is rather rare in the younger crowd in BsAs, but this is the subject of another post), but due to her choice of a bra, it was practically impossible to have a nice (close embrace) dance as the breasts, lifted by the bra, acted as bumpers.

So, could you please save those bras for going on dates, job interviews or anywhere else where you think larger breasts will give you an edge, but leave them home when going to a milonga?
Please?

BsAs 2009 - Muchos gracias

2009-06-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

Aha! It took me long enough to figure it out, but apparently if they say "muchos gracias" at the end of the tanda, it means they really liked dancing with you. I feel like a dumb ass for taking two weeks to figure this out... ;)

BsAs 2009 - Week 2 - Overview

2009-06-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Make friends. Fast.

The hardest part in some of the BsAs milongas where the people I’d like to dance with go, (the non-traditional milongas) is the “private party” feeling of the event, when one feels it’s not part of the party. Maybe to a far lesser degree, there is some of this in US as well, but in BsAs it’s taken to an art. Unlike any milongas I’ve been to in US and Canada, where people seem to be there to dance with other people and they act as such, people here in BsAs tend come with a group and sit together, all closed up. What I mean is they face each other, chat when they don’t dance and you can’t make eye contact with them to save your life. What is a shame is that at least some of them are in fact expecting to be asked to dance, as if I decide to go to the table and basically stare at them from 3 feet away, they might turn around, look pleasantly surprised that I’m asking and enthusiastically accept. Why the whining then, why don’t I just do that? Well, because the exact same body language will yield the exact opposite result, I can walk to a table, stop in front of it and not even be acknowledged. At all. All of this being done in front of a rather large audience. This feels far worst then being said no, as they seem to be saying “you are not even worth taking the effort to lift my head and nod “No”. So I’m sitting there in front of the table, no one even looking at me, trying to figure out how long do I sit there before I turn around and go back to my table with my tail between my legs. One second? Two? Five? While I blame no one for going somewhere just to dance with their friends, and it’s certainly not anyone’s responsibility to befriend me, not to mention my own stupidity to go to a Spanish speaking country not speaking any spanish, I believe the ignoring thing is rude and unnecessary.

I’m sure someone will ask, or at least wonder, why don’t go to the traditional ones? Maybe the traditional milongas are great in season, but at the ones I have gone to, there were very few people I was interested in dancing with. So, my advice to anyone coming here in the winter is, learn Spanish and make friends. Get thick skinned. As fast as you can.

Milongas & Practicas

Tuesday @ Praktika8 I had a good time. I am more known there, so I generally get the dances I ask for. The people are much friendlier then other places, though what I wrote above certainly applies there as well. Music was good.

Wednesday @ TangoLab I took the class before and while I like the teacher, there was a lot of talking all fast all in Castellano, I could not follow that to save my life. I did pick up a nice boleo from a position I never considered, so the time was not lost. The “practica” after is in fact a milonga (same as Praktika8, PracticaX and others). The place is nice, but the floor is very slippery and the acoustics are terrible (lots of shiny flat surfaces). That’s one of the places you better come with a group. Music was OK.

Thursdays & Fridays @ Villa Malcom I had over all a good time. I had a fantastic Canaro set, quite a few good dances, but I definitely not danced as much I dance when I’m in NYC or at a festival. The one tanda at a time rule makes it more difficult to keep dancing. Music was OK/Good.

Saturday @ DNI practica in the afternoon it was OK. It’s a real practica, but the level is not very high. For the alternative music fan, it’s the place to go. It has the best floor anywhere as it was set up as a dance studio.

Saturday @ Milonga10 I had the best time since I arrived in BsAs. I danced pretty much the entire time from 11 till 4am. I skipped maybe 2 tandas. The music at Milonga10 & Praktika8 was actually really good.

Sunday @ Loca (same place as the TangoLab) was a total loss. The class before which we attended was something about musicality, but there was A LOT of talking and not one tango song was played during the entire 2 hours. Not even Nuevo tango or fusion or nothing, they used some ballad that I was tempted to ask what it was so I can use it as a cortina, as no one would ever attempt to dance to it at a milonga. I am definitely not a fan of that teaching style, where the teachers explains something for 20 minutes and then you get to try it. They were very nice though and tried as best as they could to explain things in English for us, but it didn't really work out at all. The milonga had the same atmosphere as the TangoLab, little groups hanging out together and dancing with each other. So, if you’re going there, go with a group. I did not like the music at all. The music was way to interesting for me (lots of known songs in unusual orchestrations, alternative, nuevo, etc).

Monday @ El Motivo (practica at Villa Malcom) I had a good time. It’s very weakly attended in this season, but this is a real practica so if you find someone you like dancing with and the other way around, no one will look funny at you if you dance for an hour straight. The woman I had the fantastic Canaro set was there and we danced for maybe half an hour (until they played an alternative set which didn’t inspire me at all), that alone definitely would’ve made my night, but the other dances were quite nice too. Music was OK.

Classes

The classes at DNI are useful, but I didn’t take too many this week as I’m working during the day and the evening classes are too basic. I took two classes with Chicho at La Viruta and I think he has the best teaching technique I’ve seen yet. Anywhere. Why?
- he starts the class with some exercises which will have you practice the elements he will use throughout the class. In one class it was leading tiny steps and gigantic steps intertwined, in the other was being able to change the follower’s weight independently then yours.
- he will demonstrate a short part of a sequence and briefly talk about the technique required, maybe an element or two and then lets the class practice for 2-3 songs. He and his partner goes around and they answer questions. After that he goes back to the same part of the sequence and adds more technical details, maybe another 2 or 3. And then you get to practice again. He repeats until all the technique elements required are covered.
- He talks briefly and concisely, he shows what he’s taking about, the bad way(s) and the good ways to do it and even for me who I can’t understand a word in Spanish, I understood most of what was expected of me.
- He doesn’t insist on having the students do what he showed, you take what you want from what he says and work on whatever you want of it.
- The classes are three hours long, which allows for a lot more time to cover technique in detail. It is exhausting though.
- While the material is really hard, and it was way over my head, I definitely learned new things, not moves, but ways of moving.

Other stuff

Sunday we went to San Telmo to the antique fair which is on every sunday. Wholy crap, that was a lot of antiques. I took a few pictures but didn't download them yet. We walked for a few hours, went to a restaurant where they had a "tango show", a couple would come and dance a few songs in a small space between the tables. To their credit, they were dancing on traditional tango music and were actually dancing salon tango.

Between working 10-6, tango classes and milongas I had no time to do anything else, or go see anything else. But I have 4 weeks of vacation out of the next 7, so I will have to find time.

BsAs 2009 - Week 2 - Thursday @ Villa Malcom – Take 2

2009-06-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Where last week I had a miserable time, this week it was so much better. Last night I arrived to there around 10:30, after having dinner after taking Chicho’s class. As a side note, and I may write a post about his classes, damn, those classes are hard. First, they are three hours long with one 5 minute break. It was way over my head, but you are taking the class with a partner, so as long as you are both aware of each other’s limitations, there is plenty to learn regardless of one’s level. At least 50% of the class, if not more, were teachers, either from BsAs or abroad.

Anyway, after getting there and warming up with a friend I came with (bringing someone with you so you can warm up and be seen dancing is highly recommended) I had quite a few dances ranging from nice to very good. Throughout the night I tried several time to ask a women I was introduced to during Chicho’s class, but she was either dancing or was in a conversation. Around one, the first song of tanda just starting was Poema (Canaro). I really like this song, I though Canaro was the perfect orchestra to dance with this woman based on how she moves, so I stood up determined to go ask her, even if I had to interrupt a conversation. When I turn around, here she was asking me if I wanted to dance. I resisted the temptation to look behind, to make sure she was talking to me, and off we went. It was one of the best dances I’ve had, ever, definitely the best Canaro set.

When I got back to the table my friend asked me how was it, I told her and her next question was “What makes her so good?”. Huh… Good question. I’ve written a post a long time ago on this subject, time has passed, so maybe I’ll take a crack at it again at some point in the near future.

BsAs 2009 - Week 1

2009-06-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

So it’s been a week since we arrived. Here’s the summary :

- Love the “winter” weather so far, I find it amusing seeing portenos wearing winter clothes and gloves when it’s 50 degrees outside …
- many of the milongas are very weakly attended in the off season. There are exceptions.
- people come out really late. For a milonga ending at 3 or 4 it’s not unusual to see people walking in at 2am.
- people (locals obviously) come and hang out in groups. The women rarely look around so catching their eye from afar is next to impossible (except at traditional milongas), generally you need to get closer and/or verbally ask.
- a cabeceo decline is highly unreliable (except at traditional milongas). A number of time I caught someone’s eye and they looked away. When I eventually got bored and said fuck it, I’ll just ask, they enthusiastically accepted. Now it’s possible they actually watched/seen me dance between the decline and the verbal invitation, but most of these things happened at the end of the night so presumably they’ve seen me dance before the decline. With “the pants” I’m not exactly inconspicuous.
- not speaking Spanish, while not a major issue makes for awkward pauses between songs ;)
- bring with you black pepper if you like it in your food. Most restaurants don’t have it.
- don’t buy anything packaged labeled orange juice and expect to drink orange juice
- I went to a few traditional milongas, I don’t like the vibe. It may also be relevant that at the few traditional milongas I’ve been, there weren’t many people I wanted to dance with.
- Many people equate the “Nuevo” milongas with open embrace acrobatics. The best “acrobats” are also fantastic close embrace dancers.
- I like the teaching style at DNI but they are focused on open embrace. That’s unfortunate. I’ll still take classes there though.
- I really dig the telecommuting work. Nothing like having a 5 foot commute, being able to walk downstairs and have lunch in Palermo-Soho. That 9am EST is 10am here doesn’t hurt either as La Viruta is open very late;). The SipTalk VOIP phone works wonderfully. Being paid dollars and spending pesos is also a pretty good deal. Too bad I have bills going on the State side as well…
- The one tanda at a time rule is observed almost anywhere I’ve been (except at VM on Mondays). I still don’t know how I feel about this one. There are times when I dance with someone and I know a second set would work much better, so at those times the rule is annoying. On to the other hand, it makes one make the most of the songs that you have. No “autopilot dancing” because you don’t like the song/set and you’re just waiting for the next tanda.
- As one gets known, it gets much easier getting dances. Last night at praktika8, a week after my first night out in BsAs, I danced pretty much the entire night, all dances were at least very good, and all of them were with BsAs residents, half locals, half foreigners living there.
- Medialunas are yummy
- If I would have state the biggest difference I felt between women who are trained to dance in BsAs vs some other places, is the way they move their hips when dancing. Portenas and foreigners living here they all roll their hips as they walk, which makes for a much more flavorful dance and removes a lot of the stiffness people trained other places have.

2009-06-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a good night, even though it was low key. I went to check out El Beso early in the evening, that was a mistake, as the milonga doesn’t even start until after 10, and people are not coming before 11 when I left (as I was meeting some people at La Capilla). La Capilla it’s a very cute place, small, lots of character, they serve coffee, empanadas and a few other thing. There were very few people (apparently it used to be free and now they were charging 5 pesos), but I had a good time. I danced quite a bit with a new friend who lives in BsAs, (the vals set was really, really nice, thank you N), with my new friend S visiting from France and two locals. One of them , D, joined N, S and I to La Viruta around 2AM where we danced some more. La Viruta was not very busy and there were lots of fantastic dancers, but the music was … err … well, mostly weird crap so I did not feel like trying to dance with someone new on that, especially since I was tired by then. But I had a few fun sets with D and N and then around 4am I headed back to the apt. At 10AM I had to be online at work. Waking up was rough ...

I will be working the next couple of weeks 10am-6pm so the afternoon classes at DNI are out. The evening ones are mostly beginner so it seems I’ll be taking a break for a bit, unless I find something else worth attending that starts around 7pm.

BsAs 2009 -- Day 5

2009-06-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

2pm : class
4pm-7pm : practica
7:30pm-10pm : Los Consagrados
11pm-4am :Milonga10
4am : done

The class was interesting, though the entire material applies exclusively to open embrace. I like the teaching style at DNI, I wish I could find a non-nuevo class that teaches the same way.

The practica was fun. A lot of foreigners living in BsAs. Brazilian, Israel, Italy, Canada, etc. The israel girl wore me out in 4 songs. I felt I needed a nap after that set. A teacher from DNI asked me to dance and I had to decline, the music played at the time was totally undanceable (for me). I danced with a tiny portena who was totally wild (in a fun way). All in all, it was good.

We went to Los Consagrados to meet some friends who go there regularly. I don't really like the traditional scene, where the women sit on one side and the men on the other. I danced with Debbi and two of our friends, and that was it. An older porteno stopped by at the table to say that he thought I was dancing tango very well. He seemed surprised I don't speak castellano.

When I arrived at Milonga10, there was a class going on. It was a "I show, you do" type class, I can't say I like that style a lot. The level wasn't very high. At midnight the place was pretty empty, so I considered going some place else. The place filled up by 1am, and I danced pretty much the whole night. A portena came she asked me to dance, she said because she saw me in the class and I was dancing "muy lindo". She was good, a really nice embrace too. I even got a compliment from the waitress. At some point a tanda started and I really liked the song, I looked around and no one I knew was good was sitting, so I asked a girl I didn't see dance (the wear patterns on her shoes looked right). She declined. Later I saw her standing up, she seemed like she was 6'5. Note to self : watch and then ask. I left before the milonga was over as I was getting too tired to dance and I was starting to dance on auto-pilot. Not something I would want to do in a milonga in BsAs much less in the place where Chicho and F. Naveira were hanging out.

It was a good day.

BsAs 2009 - Day 4

2009-06-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we took two classes at DNI. They were good, all about the mechanics of movement, not as much about figures. I took one class at Tango Brujo a few days ago, I wasn't impressed. Tango Brujo is also much further away, so I may stay with DNI for now. I'd just like to find a non-nuevo place to take some classes.

Villa Malcom - take 2 (on Friday)

We were there at 10 to attend the class before the practica, since we were told that was a good idea to make yourself known, yet last night, no one in the class except for maybe two other couple could actually dance, so being there didn't help much. When the practica started, I danced with Debbi for a while, then with a french girl I met in one of the classes at DNI. After that I danced with 1 portena, who's been dancing for 2 years yet she was moving like some of the best dancers I ever danced with (in my opinion of course). She was my best dance of the night, the trip and one of the top dances I've had ever. I danced with another two BaAs residents after that (one american, one japanese) both really good dancers and then with a couple of women from Boston who were there. All in all, better then last night.

La Viruta - take 2 (on Friday)

At 3am I walked to La Viruta. The music wasn't bad, I wasn't crazy about it, but it was ok. The floor was packed and it stayed packed until 5am when I was done. Some good dancers, not a lot. I danced with 3 people. A french woman at met at DNI, a portena (friend of the woman I had the best dance with) and a woman from Australia. The portena was a lot of fun, the other two were really good.

Note: Invisible

A number of people warned me about how ruthless portenas & portenos are. I figured, well, they're just not going to dance with me, what's the big deal. Well, here's the thing, they all seem to master the skill at looking right through you. A number of times I felt the temptation of sticking my tongue at them to see if I get a reaction. A couple of time I felt the need to look in a mirror to make sure I didn't suddenly became a ghost. Not yet...

Note: Pepper

If you like pepper in your food, bring it with you from wherever you are coming from. You can't find it here. Also, bring coffee, the one sold here has sugar in it...

BsAs2009 - Day 3

2009-06-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

Well, the words that come to mind for my evening today are ... total loss. Debbi wasn't feeling well so I went to Villa Malcom alone. I got there around 10:40, just as the class was wrapping up. I noticed a quite a few good dancers, which, no surprise, avoided my gaze systematically. I then saw a woman sitting down and I thought I recognized her from another milonga. I was wrong. Very wrong. That tanda probably sealed my fate for the evening. All good dancers there were in groups, none of them seemed interested in dancing with other people. I thought I caught a break when one of them accepted my invitation. It was an OK dance, nothing out of the ordinary, and maybe it would've helped, but somehow EVERYONE decided to dance that set, so there was no one left to see anything. That concluded my dancing until around 1am, when I threw the towel and walked to Viruta.

At La Viruta, there were maybe 10 dancers that were good or above, all of them hanging out with their friends. Since I didn't feel like waking in the middle of the pack and tap someone on the shoulder and cabaceo didn't seem to work at all, they were all out of reach. I thought I caught another break when one of the better dancers I saw at El Beso last night walked in and sat alone. I went and asked her, to my surprise she accepted and off we went. The problem is the music at La Viruta tonight was the most unpredictable crap I've ever heard played at a milonga ever. So after the first somewhat passable song, they played some Piazzola wannabe utter crap set which naturally, didn't inspire me in any way or form. The dance wasn't bad, it was just ... colorless. Either I was unable to engage her or she is not the type to "engage" during the dance. After that set, the music got even worse and 20 min later, at 3am they played Cumparsita, which ironically, despite being a version I don't like, was the best song I heard in the last 45 minutes.

So, 4h 20min, 3 tandas, one terrible, one ok and one ... flat. I am reasonably sure this was possibly the worst night I've had since I started tango, and I am including my first milonga I ever attended. On the up side, I can't see how it would get any worst, so, it should be better tomorrow.

BsAs 2009 - Day 2

2009-06-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well, day 2 was a bit of a bust tango wise. We went to check out the afternoon milonga at Confiteria Ideal. Pretty place, there was no one (that could dance) there.

Then we went to Salon Canning around 8pm for the "evening" milonga. Same thing. Me and Debbi we sat separately so she can get asked to dance. I didn't ask anyone except Debbi, as there was no one there I wanted to dance with, Debbi danced a couple of times.

Then we went to El Beso but sat separately. Naturally, I got a seat at a table in a pretty bad spot (even though I learned later, that was not the worst spot). The entire night aside from dancing with Debbi and a friend who met us there, I danced with 3 other people out of the 9 people that I thought looked good. By looking good, I mean people that I would've asked to dance at a festival if I had the chance.Out of the 9, two of them were there with their boyfriends so they danced only with them, two came late and they were practically impossible to catch, as they were passed from one leader to another and the other two avoided my cabaceo. The lesson I learned, if the table you are seated at is not well placed, and you sit, you'll not get dances. So I went and hung out at the bar, from where I got the dances I did (despite the advice of a friend who said only the losers hang out at the bar so I won't get any dances there). The music was OK, the navigation was pretty good. All in all, I was bored to tears. It's unlikely I'll go back there.

BsAs 2009 - Day 1

2009-06-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

7:05am – still in the plane and bored out of my mind. I can’t sleep in the plane, so I’ve been up the whole night. We will be landing in a little over 1 hour. Damn, this is a long flight. Any interest I ever had visiting Australia (or Japan or any of the other places on the other side of the planet) vanished…

They are serving breakfast, gotta go.

9:20pm – We got to the apartment around 11am, walked across the street to get some pastries, and then crashed around 1pm. We were going to get up at 4pm, so I set the alarm. Yeah, that didn’t work. The alarm did work, us getting up didn’t. I don’t even remember shutting the alarm off…We woke up around 6pm, still exhausted. But hungry, so we went and had some food at a café a block away. I think I’m going to like BsAs, it reminds me a lot of home. Around 10:30 we’re going to be heading out to the first milonga in BsAs (well, it’s a practica but you know what I mean), Praktica8. More then a few people asked me in the last few weeks if I’m nervous. Umm, no, not about dancing in BsAs. I just don’t really know how is going to work chatting with people when my Spanish vocabulary is limited to “Hola”.

3am – Got back from Praktika8, where I went alone, as Debbi wasn’t feeling well. Initially I was supposed to meet some people there, but that didn’t happen, so, there I was, my first time out dancing in BsAs, in a place where I don’t know anyone and no one knows me. That was weird, as I can’t remember the last time when that happened. It was probably the first time I went to Montreal. Anyway, I just got myself a glass of wine and sat and watched for a little over one hour, trying to figure out the ways of the land. My first observation was, holy crap, ALL these people can dance! Well! As they arrive, people get attached to "packs", and when they don't dance, they chat. So, if you go ask someone and get turned down, you will do it in front of an audience and everyone watches everything. Sweet! Cabaceo doesn't seem to be used here, so you have to go ask people verbally. The music at the Praktika8 was actually really good even though the DJ seemed to hate valses, as he didn’t play any. Well, I wanted to dance at least one tanda on my birthday, so I went and asked one of the girls that did not seem belong to a "pack", who seemed to move well and who sat for the last few tandas. The strategy worked, she accepted and off we went. She was a good dancer, I’d say at the level of the better dancers in NYC, and it turns out she spoke a little bit of English too. When she heard I was from Boston, she seemed slightly surprised “But, you are a good dancer”… I don’t think she meant it the exact way it sounded, but it was funny nevertheless. After that I danced with another 4 or 5 people and except for one, they were all good or very good dancers. The one that wasn’t that great, just moved back to BsAs from LA where she lived for the last 7 years. All the women I danced with were from BsAs (though one of them moved to BsAs from Germany) and based on their comments at the end of the tanda, they seemed to enjoy the dances. They all spoke some English, so even though I should learn some Spanish, not knowing any doesn’t seem to be a big problem so far. All in all was a good night, although it would’ve been a lot nicer if Debbi was there. I think I’m going to like dancing in BsAs.

He doesn't ask me to dance (anymore). Why?

2009-04-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

This questions comes up in various forms all the time so I figured it's time to address it.

There are some guys who used to dance with you but they don't anymore. You don't know why. Where are some possible answers.

1) There are some guys asking you to dance at some events and not at others.
a) It's probably not about you, it about about them wanting to dance with other people more, maybe people who only go to those events.

2) There are some guys who used to dance with you but they stopped dancing with you at some point.
a) You may have offended them. You may have said "No" in a way that was more offending then you think.
b) If they were dancing with you when you were a beginner and now they don't anymore even though you are better, maybe there are some things you do or you don't do which bugs them too much. They tolerated that when you ere starting because they were hoping eventually you will correct it, but they probably lost hope or patience. Try to remember what they probably mentioned at practicas repeatedly, you are probably still doing or not doing that. If you suspect this is the reason, approach them at a practica and say something to the effect of "Listen, I need your help with something. I'm trying to identify what to work on next and I would like your opinion". Since you are not actually asking them to dance, it's a pretty safe way to go about it.
c) If they asked you a few times and then never again, the reason may be similar with the one in the paragraph above. Same suggestions too.
d) you may have slipped of their radar, very possible in a large community. Get back on their radar (see below).

3) There are some guys who NEVER asked me to dance
a) You may not be on their radar, very possible if the community is larger. Get on their radar. Ask a common friend to introduce you, make small talk when you can. Ask their opinion on something at a practica.
b) You may intimidate them. Same suggestions as above.
c) You may (appear to) have some dancing habits they can't stand. Same suggestions as for 2.b

Hope this helps.

Apathy

2009-03-30T12:25:00.001-07:00

The last few months MIT brought Robin & Kyla and Adam & Ciko to teach in Boston. MIT also subsidized the workshops making them much cheaper then what it would have cost someplace else. Both sets of teachers are highly respected, they regularly teach at high profile festivals, they are interesting and fun.

Yet none of that seems able to wake up Boston from it's tango apathy. The attendance to the workshops was truly embarrassing in the last couple of months, making anyone think twice about bringing anyone else to teach in Boston. Providence had a significantly better attendance and the town and it's community is much smaller.

The same goes for practicas. Aside from the Sunday practica which still brings in a decent amount of people, the FREE Monday and Thursday MIT practicas are sparsely attended, to an extent that I'm starting to think about throwing in the towel on the Monday practica (which I co-host with Deb and Harish).

So, anyone who has ideas on how to wake up the Boston tango community, feel free to speak up. I'm running out of ideas...

Catalyst ...

2008-11-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

A recent message in my "Honesty Box" on Facebook helped me understand what it would be my next challenge in dancing tango. While it wasn't really anything new to me, it did help articulate the thought.

The problem is that for me to dance well, I need a catalyst. It could be music I really like, a partner I connect with really well, the phase of the moon, who knows what else it could be. It seems rare, if ever, that I get inspired when none of these elements are extraordinary.

While I have little to no clues on how to even start, defining the problem is the very first step ...

New York Tango Festival pictures

2008-10-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

are online at my newly revamped website :

http://www.bostonphotographs.com

The new website has a shopping cart, RSS feeds, search, ecards, guestbook and some other goodies. Some of those may malfunction as I get everything up, so if you see something wrong, please email me.

Done! (ish)

2008-09-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, before the tango virus bit, I saw a posting in the free section of craigslist from someone that was giving away some used hard wood flooring. I picked it up thinking I would use it in one of the apartments in my house to replace the carpet. I put it in the garage and it sat there until last year in the fall. That's when I thought about converting my garage into a studio. A "photo" studio with ... ahem ... hardwood floors.

So I started to lay down the floor. But it got cold, and I didn't feel working in sub-freezing temperatures. Sometimes in the spring I found another post on CL for really cheap R13 insulation, less then $5 per roll. I got that one too. Then another post for free 4x4 masonite sheets. About a month ago I decided it's about time to finish this by putting all of this together. And now it's almost done, to be inaugurated soon!

As with any other project, it took a lot more work then expected. Here's a list with stuff that had to be done, just in case you consider doing this yourself.

* remove all the junk from the garage (that was painful)
* break sections of the concrete floor as they were highly uneven and cracked
* transport all that broken concrete somewhere else
* pour concrete (5' x 20' )
* pressure wash the rest of the concrete
* replace one garage door as it was falling apart (luckily I found a used one on CL for $50)
* lay down the hardwood floor (on 1x2s set up about a foot apart) (400 sq ft)
* paint the concrete blocks that form the "foundation"
* remove all electric wiring (as it was a hack job)
* remove all shelves and everything that was attached to walls
* install insulation
* use the 4x4 masonite panels to cover all walls
* extend the window frames using leftover hardwood flooring
* paint the window frames (this was Debbi's doing)
* paint the walls linen white (this was Debbi's doing)
* paint the two garage doors inside
* paint the side door (this was Debbi's doing)
* Install a deadbolt in the side door
* install rubber seals on the bottom of the garage doors.
* install foam seals on the top of the garage doors
* re-install electric wiring, power panel, hookup to the electric system with a suspended wire
* clean garage attic to make space to store all the crap that used to live in the garage
* Install spot lights & wiring to provide indirect light
* install speakers on the ceiling
* install the tv on the ceiling
* install amplifier and wire all audio & video stuff
* install fan on the ceiling

And I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Here's what I learned from this project.

* Make your budget (time & money) and then multiply the time by 3 and the money by two.
* Don't expect to dance (or walk) the day after you're laying down 400sq feet of flooring. Not going to happen.
* There is a lot more crap in the garage then it looks. A LOT MORE.
* If you're planning to paint your walls white, don't cover the walls with dark brown stuff. You will need A LOT of paint.
* Masonite is prone to warping and you need to use a table saw to cut it. Unless you are totally broke, just go buy drywall.
* Thank God (if there is one) for power nailers, can't imagine installing a floor with a hammer & regular nails.
* A garage door spring is VERY powerful, make sure you don't let it decompress abruptly, it may rip your head off.

Tango "Gods" and manners

2008-08-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

I make occasional references to tango "Gods", and there is a good reason I use the double quotes for the word God. While in most cases I appreciate their skill and dedication, I don't put them on a pedestal, mostly because they are just people who happen to be good at what they do.

When however one of these people starts considering themselves "Gods", I'm less then impressed. At a recent event, I asked a visiting aspiring "Goddess" for a dance. In my two year tango "career" I asked for dances many elite dancers and some said yes, some said no. But the answer I got this time was unique in it's rudeness, and I quote :

"No, I can't do it. I ran out of patience for tonight." When my face showed the obvious "Huh?" that was going through my mind, she continued "If you did anything that would test my patience, I'd flip out".

It should be noted that when I ask people to dance who are "above my grade", I always formulate the question with a built in "escape clause", to make it easy for them to say no if they would rather not dance with me, as I don't want to make it awkward for them. In other words, that remark was totally uncalled for.

What's my point? If you are a tango "God", especially if you are making a living by being one, keep in mind that the people who you are talking to are potentially your clients, not your "minions" (even if some behave like they are). While you may be a God to some people, that is only true in the tango world, in "grand scheme of things", aka "real life", the people you talk to are possibly much smarter, more powerful and not likely to be intimidated by your diva fits. In fact, the only possible result of you being an ass, is getting less business. How much less? Well, it depends how many friends the person you've been an ass with has, doesn't it?

And to be crystal clear, it's not being turned down that outraged me, it was the way it was handled. There is one tango "Goddess" I can think off who declined all my invitations since I've known her (maybe 5 invites made over a year and a half). I will always support her as a tango teacher as I think she is good at what she does and she is a decent person.

Good or bad?

2008-06-27T12:18:00.001-07:00

I was talking with a beginner follower last night and she mentioned that she can't tell yet who are the good dancers. That is an excellent point, because I distinctly remember the people who I thought they were good dancers when I started, and in some cases I am ashamed ...

The woman in question obviously had more common sense then I had, because she was aware of her inability to tell. So, if you are a beginner follower, how can you tell, and, does it matter?

I'll tackle the "Does it matter" question first. In my opinion, yes it does. Dancing with a leader who doesn't respect your axis, who will push/pull/shove instead of leading, who steps with absolutely no relation to the music (and sadly, there are many of them), not only will not help you get better, but it would likely make you a worst dancer. Also, most of these people are also dangerous (to dance with/around). Another beginner follower who I advised to accept dances only from select people she said "but, then I will sit most of the night". And you might, but your dance will be better for it. In addition, when you accept dances with these clowns, those are also the times when the better dancers can't ask you, since you are on the floor. Many advanced dancers will dance with beginners for various reasons, the most common being to better the community. But it's unlikely they will go out of their way to seek out the ones that are never available. Also, an advanced dancer will be more likely to ask a discerning beginner.

How do you tell who is good? Hmm. OK, look for the following :

a) Elegance of movement
b) Their movements are correlated to the feel of the music (not to mention the beat)
c) They pause, savor the moment
d) They look stable, balanced, always in control of their limbs

How do you tell who is bad? Well, in addition to not having any of the qualities above, they also :

a) execute a volcada/colgada/sacada every 500ms
b) look like they will be crashing into walls or the floor any second now
c) cause their followers have a panicked look on their face
d) look at their feet
e) bump into people every minute
f) anyone executing ANYTHING that has their follower with both feet in the air at the same time at a milonga (as opposed to a performance).

So what do you do when one of these clowns are asking for a dance? Just say "No, thank you". If they have any class at all, they will not ask you again. Sometimes it may take a few "No, thank you" to fend them off completely. Conversely, do not say "No, thank you" to people you may want to dance with at some point in the future.

Feel free to come to talk to me about this. Obviously all the statements above are my opinion only, others may disagree. So ...

g) anyone who disagrees with me

just kidding!

Montreal NeoTango Festival 08

2008-05-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

I'm on my way back from the NeoTango fest in Montreal. I had a pretty good time, despite my thumb hurting like hell most of the time (I managed to fuck it up pretty good about a week ago in an incident involving a table saw).

MIA?

I haven't been writing a lot lately, for a number of reasons. One of them was/is being in a tango slump, or feeling like being in one. Boston has been very quiet in the last few months, I don't know what is the reason but many of the better dancers sort of stopped coming out. As a result, I kind of lost the drive to go out dancing, so I didn't dance as much. The quality of my dance went downhill and the depression uphill ... So, since I didn't want to make my blog a whiners forum, I kind of stopped posting.

Tango moments

I danced quite a bit at the festival, and while for the most part I wasn't moving great (pain medication, being a bit rusty, crowded dance floor), I had a few moments which alone would've made the trip worthwhile. I'll write about two of them, for reasons I'll explain a bit later. Saturday night we made it to the milonga very early so I had the chance to dance with Kyla a couple of tandas which were ... well, to call them awesome would be an understatement. She is in my opinion, in the highest tier of dancers I've ever had the chance to dance with, and she started dancing tango relatively recently. Another memorable couple of tandas were with Shorey. Every single time I danced with her since we met, I had a tango moment, and every single time it was better then before (except once at TdLM when I was moving like a drunk bear). One of the things I really appreciate about her is her unwillingness to compromise. She will not dance with someone unless she really wants to, and I will gladly take a gentle rejection then a pity dance. But if she decides to dance with you, she will make you feel like she is giving everything she's got (even if that's not true, I for one am nowhere near being able to handle everything she's got ... Not yet anyway).

I am not going to write about every single tanda I had, first because I'm too lazy, and second because there's no point in that, but I wanted to mention these two because both Kyla and Shorey teach, and I can't think of many followers who would not gain something by learning from any of them. And if you wonder why the "free advertisement", it's just my evil plan to encourage the creation of followers with (any of) their qualities.

About the festival

I didn't take any classes so I can't talk about that. The music preferences are highly subjective so I'm reluctant to talk about that, but I will mention that I really enjoyed the music Robin and Shorey played when they DJed. I liked the table arrangement at the "Espace Del Arte", which allowed people to walk around without walking on the dance floor. There was live music Saturday night, and while they sounded pretty good to me, they played mostly Piazzolla which I don't consider danceable, obviously other opinions may vary. I just used the time to socialize. During the all nighters there was always coffee which was very useful, I wish more organizers would do that. One suggestion I'd have for the space at the Fabrika is to create a two foot wide cordoned off space along one of the long walls to allow people to walk from the front to the back of the room without stepping on the dance floor. I almost punched a couple of morons who were walking on the dance floor like they were in their living room. One other thing I found rather puzzling was ending the Sunday milonga at 3am, when the energy was still really high and Monday was was a holiday.

Conclusions

- Slicing and dicing a thumb on the table saw before a tango festival should be avoided whenever possible.
- I'd much rather dance with good dancers who really like dancing with me then with fantastic dancers who are indulging me. While the latter would likely a much smoother experience, it generally feels rather unsatisfying.
- While I didn't progress (much) lately, I don't think I regressed (much) either, which is something I was afraid happened

First shot ... Again!

2008-03-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

When I purchased my large format camera I was planning to use it with Polaroid film, as I posted in the original post about it. But since, I found out the Polaroid film is being discontinued, so I dusted off my old Jobo rotary film processor, ordered a 50 sheet box of Efke 100 film (this is an eastern european film made using an old film recipe, which I prefer over the modern emulsions). In order to test the process (and see if the chemicals which were stored in the garage for the last 3-4 years are still good) I made a test shot. Turns out, they are fine even though the shelf live it's supposed to be about a year.

Why festivals are great and awful at the same time ....

2008-03-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to the Tango Marathon in DC. I had a great time. By Sunday afternoon I was moving incredibly well, and it seemed I reached another stage in my tango career. A week later, at the LongaMilonga, all of it was gone. I was (barely) back at my usual level.

I guess at a festival, after dancing for days/hours, one reaches the "sweet spot", all warmed up but before exhaustion hits, when they are at their absolute best. As awesome as that feels, it gets equally depressing once I get home and revert to my usual self. Kind of like drinking, fells good when you're drinking, but the headache next day is proportional with the "fun" one had. Yet I can't wait for the Yale festival next week... Nuts!

Busy weekend

2008-03-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

The weekend started early when I left work at 3PM to drive to Yale, for the Leap Year Milonga (on Feb 29th). We made it there around 6PM, had some dinner (pretty yummy pulled pork from the cafeteria) and since a practica/exchange was going on we started dancing.

We were expecting a lot more people from NYC to show up but there was a snow storm going on and the turnout was less then expected. It was a fine evening though, I had some fun dances, even though I was kind of tired and not very perky.

Around midnight Deb wasn't feeling well, and although we had someone to host us for the night, we decided to drive back home. In hindsight that was a bad idea, as I was tired, it was snowing, the road was covered in slush and despite the 4x4 being on, the Jeep was sliding all over the place. Once we got home around 3AM we crashed just to be woken up an hour later by a call from the office about some systems not working as they should... Grrrr

Saturday afternoon Korey & Mila had some workshops at MIT, one of them on single axis turns sounded interesting so we went. I liked the workshop very much. Korey & Mila are working a lot on the technique elements of movement ( and not that much on figures or sequences) and they build it up with exercises and games. I have to say, it was definitely worth going and I highly recommend their workshops. We also went to one of the workshops on Sunday called "Small & beautiful" which concentrated on fun things done with weight changes. One of the best thing about the workshops is that they were fun and useful for everyone despite the wide range of skill levels.

Saturday night we went to "Tango Paradiso" milonga. Sadly this milonga like most other milongas in Boston lately was sparsely attended. Mila & Korey were there though and I had one amazingly fun tanda with Mila (well, it was amazingly fun for me anyway ;) which made my evening. During that tanda, at some point she slowed me down and sort of took over the lead for a couple of steps, which was awesome! I'd like to believe she did that because she thought I can handle it but maybe she was just bored ;)

Sunday at the workshop Korey lead me for a little bit to show me something. Hmmm ... so that's how leading should/could feel like ... Crap, I have a looong way to go and I'm grateful to great dancers (like Mila and many others) for putting up with my shortcomings as I figure stuff out.

About the allnighter and a rant on appologies on the dance floor

2008-02-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday Deb and I went to the monthly all nighter in Providence. The place was livelier then it was in the last few months, not in small part because of Robin Thomas who managed to convince a NY contingent to show up.

After opening the night with Debbi as usual (we did have a lot of fun with a milonga set) I danced with Kayla, Robin's partner. Despite a cold, she was just as fun as always. The music was great, Robin is one of my favorite DJs and 3 tandas passed in a blink of eye. At some point between tandas I mentioned that in my effort to correct my posture my back tension is ... well... back. She suggested I don't bring my chest forward when I dance, but rather widen my shoulders. That's something I will be trying, as it makes sense to me.

I danced with a couple of women who despite being good dancers kept apologizing for their (perceived) mistakes. This is something I strongly discourage people from doing (unless someone got hurt of course). First, you don't really know if whatever you thought you done wrong was wrong to begin with, second, it's a partner dance, a hiccup in the dance is rarely caused 100% by just one of the dancers. It's generally a shared responsibility. Even if something gone wrong is the fault of one of the dancers, apologizing not only it doesn't help with anything, but it makes things worst. Let's say the hiccup lasted for a second or two. If you keep silent and concentrate on the dance, that's all there is to it. If you apologize you take another 2-3 seconds and then if your partner feels like they are to blame they will take a few seconds to reply. So, instead of a 2 second disruption from the dance, now it's a 10 second disruption. My advice is, don't apologize unless someone gets hurt/hit. If you feel like you really have to apologize, wait until the song is over.

Overall it a good night of dancing, we stayed until 3:30am I think.

First restoration project

2008-02-27T16:06:00.000-08:00

The camera I used to take the picture I posted a little while ago it was in a deplorable condition. Chipped paint, oxidate and dirty metal components, moldy & ruptured bellows "fixed" with electrical tape, etc. While it was sort of usable, it bothered me (and I'm not obsessive-compulsive about cleanness and order).

Since I had a brand new workshop available to me, I took the whole thing apart and :

* stripped all the paint from all the wooden parts
* sanded and polished most of the metal parts
* sanded, treated, stained & coated the wooden parts
* fixed the broken bellow edges with textile band and painted it with flexible rubber paint (we'll see how well that holds up).
* put it all back together

Sounds simple, right? That's what I thought when I started, but it turns out, there was a lot more work that I expected. But it's more or less completed now. There are some things I might do in the future, like plate all the non-brass metal with brass and polish it (why they used mixed metals is beyond my ability to understand), refinish the wooden parts to get a smoother surface, make a new bellows, but for now, I will use it as it is. Here it is, with pictures (you can click on the picture for a bigger, more detailed image) before and after.

By the way, for the younger generation, yes, this is a camera, it uses something called "film" to record the image and there are good reasons to use such a camera ;) To give you just one of them which is easier to explain, when properly used, the camera can produce an image with detail equivalent with a 200 mega-pixel camera.

Coffee Maker open "heart" transplant ...

2008-02-26T06:33:00.001-08:00

When my coffee maker decided to stop making coffee a few days ago I got really annoyed. It was less then a year old. It could've been in warranty but I could not find the receipt.

Without any other option, I decided to diagnose the problem. I opened it up and shortly after it became clear that the heating element was gone. Grrrr ... Buying parts for things is nearly impossible for a regular person, and even if I could, they are usually half the price of the new item. But, I did have an old an ugly coffee maker in the basement which was left by a tenant. The heating elements can't be that different, right?

So I opened that one up and sure enough, the heating elements are almost identical. Here are the coffee makers ready for the transplant.

15 minutes later the transplant is completed :

And 10 minutes later it was confirmed the patient was alive!

Guerrilla Milonga

2008-02-12T13:27:00.000-08:00

A cool concept, everyone agrees. Pick a public place (indoors during the winter) with a decent floor surface, bring some music, and start dancing. Should the guards/cops ask you to leave, you just move to the next designated spot.

Too bad no one comes to these things. Today I had to cancel the third one in a row as I only had two other people "confirmed" (aside from me and Deb) and a couple more "maybe"s.

I'm throwing in the towel.

First shot ...

2008-02-11T08:36:00.000-08:00

Since I purchased my first serious digital camera my photography taking process changed. It went from a Zen experience to a rush. The cost per picture dropped to zero (if you don't count depreciation) so taking hundreds of pictures in a few hours is not uncommon.

But I forgot about the experience of carefully composing and making a picture. Recently on a whim, I purchased an old view camera, in pretty bad condition. The plan is to restore it and then use it to regain some of that lost feeling of building an image. I will likely use Polaroid film (for as long as I find it, as they just announced they will stop all instant film production over the next year, what a great timing I have) as it gives the instant gratification I grew so fond off :-)

Using a Polaroid back I made my first image yesterday, and while it was a test shot (to test the lens, light leaks in the camera, the function of the Polaroid back, the Polaroid film which was expired), I figured I should make it, if it comes out, count. So, image no 00001 is of Deb having her morning coffee in the old rocking chair in front of the window. For those of you who care and know, it was shot at f8.5, 1/25 on Polaroid type 57 (3000 iso)with a Graflex Optar 203mm f7.5.

The tale of the workshop (no, this is not about tango)

2008-02-08T07:36:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I found a box with parts of a wooden view camera I started to build a few years ago but never finished. I decided I'd like to finish it, but I quickly remembered why I never finished it. I had no good place to work. You try to use a table saw in the kitchen, especially if you have a girlfriend...

At the same time, on the side of the house there was this room which used to be a solarium a long time ago. It had glass panels on one side, access from the outside and inside of the house. Sadly, it's been in a horrifying state since I bought the house. The glass panels were damaged so the prior owner covered them up with plywood panels, the floor was dirty concrete, the walls had wall paper decades ago, but now all the was peeled and smelly. The door between the room and the house looked like a legion of rats chewed through it (it was missing about a foot by a foot of one of the corners.

So, it occurred to me I could make myself a workshop in that room. But being on a tight budget as I'm trying to paying my debt it needed to happen quite cheap.

So I gathered stuff I had around the house :

about 10 2x4s
a couple of 1x2s
some partially broken sheets of glass
screws and nails
two partial boxes of vinyl tiles
a few partial cans of paint
a door lock
commercial grade floor sealant

I bought a few things from Home Depot
4 sheets of 4x8 sheet rock ($22)
tile adhesive ($12)
patching compound ($7)
3 sheets of plexy ($9)
A cheap door ($22)
a 2x4 sheet of pegboard ($5)

Then, I removed most of the wall paper and sanded down the walls a bit and installed the panels over it. I used one of the glass panel frames which was damaged beyond repair to fix the others, sanded down the frames and painted them brown along with the door frames. Out of the paint I had I combined them into a nice shade of beige (with Deb's help I managed to avoid having my workshop painted pink as that was the color I got on my own ...) and I used it to paint the walls and part of the glass frames.

I replaced the door, luckily I already the door handle/lock. I then used the tiles to cover the floor, and amazingly after I was done I was left with two tiles (quite miraculous considering that I never really counted to see if I had enough). I finished painting the walls and the trim, filled gaps with caulk and coated the floor with the sealant.

I removed the panels with were used to board the glass panels and I used two of them along with the 2x4s to make a worktable (the plans I used are here). Since I will need to use a router I made the table so it can easily accept the router table and while I was at it, I made it to accept a miter saw and of course I had made a panel to cover the surface back to a flat table.

I brought in the table saw I bought at a yard sale a few years back and brought it back into shape. Brought in the drill press I had in the garage. At work we are converting a storage room into a "war" room so there were a lot of shelves which were removed, so I asked and got them for free. I installed some of them. Took a little time to organize my tools and other gadgets and ...

voila!

It's not finished by any means, I still have things to paint, to clean, to repair, but it's a functional workshop!

Back from NYC ...

2008-01-23T08:56:00.000-08:00

This weekend Deb and I drove to NYC to attend the Nocturne Saturday and the milonga on Sunday evening. As it usually happen, we both had a great time.

The "perfect 2nd dance"

I had many good dances Saturday, but the one that stands out was with Ms. AmazingEmbrace. I only danced with her once before, at Seaport in the fall and I remembered those tandas as amazing. So I was really happy to see her, but I have to admit, I was a bit concerned. Many times, the second time you dance with someone with whom you had a "perfect" first dance is more or less disappointing. There are many reasons for this, some of them objective (it happened that the first time both of you were "in the "zone", you were warmed up, the music was just perfect, etc), and some of them subjective (one tends to idealize a great experience). Well, I'm happy to say that my fears were completely unjustified. I lost count how many tandas we danced non-stop, but it was over 45 minutes. I know this because one of our friends (jokingly) complained to Deb "Did you know that Sorin it's been hogging X for 45min?"... ;-) And every one of those 45 (or so) minutes was as good as it gets. She has an absolutely amazing embrace (hence the alias), the right amount of playfulness and great technique. And what's really cute is that she doesn't seem to realize (or believe) how great of a dancer she really is. If this was the only 45 minutes I danced the whole weekend, it still would've been worth the trip.

Departures

One of my favorite dancers (and I'll call her Ms. WackyKid as it fits her personality) in NYC left the city for 7 months. The way some people have birthday dances on their birthday, she had a "good bye" dance. Based on people's response when the "good bye" dance was announced, everyone really likes her and she will be missed. I know I will miss her and I'm glad we got to dance before she left.

Navigation

I am happy to say I am getting much better at navigation. Both nights were pretty packed and I did OK. Not great, but not bad either. I was thinking I should maybe set up in the garage a "training field". Tie to the ceiling a number of sand bags and have them swing around randomly as I try to "dance" with a pillow. Keep doing it until the sand bags never hit the pillow (and preferably never hit me either). Hmmm, I'll think some more about it...

Tension

I think I discovered why I have upper body tension with some followers and not with others. The times I don't, it's because the follower is "immune" to my tension. Sometimes I get tense (a near collision, a brief balance loss, etc). Some followers respond to that tension with some of their own, to which I respond with more, so it keeps escalating. Some followers mastered the art of absorbing the leader's tension and they are solely responsible for my "tensionless" experiences. The challenge now would be to work on this skill myself, to never respond to tension with more tension, but rather absorb it. Of course, I should start by not initiating any tension in the first place :-)

When you have to say no

At one of the milongas as I was sitting on the edge looking for someone in particular, a woman came and sat next to me. She payed me a compliment on my dancing and she asked me if I would dance with her. So far, nothing wrong with that. I happened to see her dancing before and I didn't think we would dance well together, so I said "I am not dancing right now, but thank you", I smiled and then I looked away. After which she asked "Well, maybe the next tanda then?". I didn't want to flat out say no so I said "Thank you for asking, but I am now looking to dance with someone in particular" and I looked away again. At which point she replied "How about later then?" and waited for an answer. So I answered "No, thank you". She asked these questions loud enough so anyone in the immediate vicinity could hear her. Some people use this "technique" to coerce people into dancing with them by using to their advantage the tendency of most people not to embarrass the "offenders". Obviously, the "technique" can easily backfire ...

Milonga

My milonga is getting better, albeit very slowly. It makes sense though, since the usual milonga to tango ratio played at milongas is 1 to 6, and it took me two years to get where I am now, to get to the same level in milonga I would need then 12 years? I clearly have to do something about that as I'm not prepared to suck at it for another 10 years ..;-)

The embrace, the embrace and ... the embrace

We were staying with friends, tango dancers themselves and when we got back from the Sunday milonga, despite being exhausted, we talked for a while about the ever elusive "perfect embrace". Some people have it, but no one can seem to explain why it's perfect. That is very frustrating, how can one try to achieve that perfect embrace if no one can define it? Grrrr ....

Too good for your own good?

2008-01-16T07:14:00.000-08:00

This post debates the wisdom of perpetually trying to improve one's ability to dance tango.

A while ago someone told me she doesn't want to get too good (at tango). When she saw the perplexed expression on my face, she explained that she lives in a small community and if she got too good she would not be able to enjoy dancing in her community anymore. At the time I thought it was just silly, but I'm not so sure anymore.

As I got better, the number of people I enjoy dancing with reduced dramatically. Most people's experiences seem to be the same. So one can't stop wondering, will the list get smaller and smaller as one gets better and better? There are a few people I know, all reputed to be fantastic dancers, whom I've only seen dancing with just a handful of people. It seems like anyone else just doesn't do it for them anymore. So, why try to get there?

One can argue that if you are better, you can appreciate the subtleties of tango. True, but I still remember my first "tango high" I had when I was about 9 months into tango, and I remember the last one I had. While the level of dancing was certainly higher on the last one, the intensity of it was similar. The only difference is that now I require dancing of much higher quality to get "high". But the quality of the "high" itself was pretty much the same.

I can see one benefit of getting better, more of the good dancers will dance with you. But if one is already at the point where most good dancers will dance with you, what is the point of getting even better?

The big question is, is there a point of diminishing returns in one's tango development ?

8 Differences Between the 1950s and Now

2007-12-27T09:28:00.001-08:00

Scenario 1: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957: Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007: School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957: Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007: Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957: Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007: Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario 4: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957: Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007: Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario 5: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957: Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007: Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6: Pedro fails high school English.
1957: Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007: Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957: Ants die.
2007: BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957: In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007: Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy. Johnny’s parents sue the school for negligence and the teacher for emotional trauma and win both cases. Mary, jobless and indebted, commits suicide by jumping off of a tall building. When she lands, she hits a car and also damages a potted pot. The car’s owner and the plant’s owner sue Mary’s estate for destruction of property. They both win.

GhettoTango & Nocturne in NYC

2007-12-17T12:55:00.000-08:00

Nicknames

Since I started my blog I used initials to refer to various people but that can get quickly confusing as there are a lot of people with the same initials. The reason I didn't use their names is because this blog is public and I didn't want everyone to know precisely who I was talking about, but at the same time, I didn't mind allowing people I know to be able to tell/guess the identities of the characters in my posts. Another blogger gave me the idea to come up with nicknames for the people I am writing about. The choice of the nickname would allow the "subjects" and a few others to know who I am talking about but protect their identity from most of the other readers. I will slowly update (some of) my past posts with nicknames.

Pajama tango

There is something about dancing tango in pajamas right after waking up that makes it really, really dreamy. It was around noon on Saturday when we (about 10 of us who took advantage of Adam & Ciko hospitality and crashed at their loft) got up after dancing the night @ GhettoTango. After having coffee Mr. TangoSuperNut took out his ipod and by sharing the ear buds he started dancing with Ms. TinyNorthern, as they didn't get to during the night. Shortly after, he took out his laptop and started playing music we could all hear. There was one woman there that I didn't know and while I've seen her during the night, we didn't get to dance or even talk. After the introductions were made I asked her to dance. She was wearing her PJs (so her nickname will be Ms. Pajamas) and socks. I was in socks too. I was also wearing other clothes ;) We danced for a while and it was absolutely lovely. We were both barely awake, which translated into a warm embrace with zero tension. We just enjoyed the dance, the music, laughed out the "hiccups" and only stopped dancing when we were warned that we'd be left without food if we didn't go join the others for breakfast. Breakfast tango is great, I wish there would be more of it soon!

Too short!

When one has a good time, the time passes really fast. The Nocturne felt like it was only an hour long, even though it started at 10PM and ended at 3:30AM. I danced a lot yet there were so many people I didn't have a chance to dance with. Why do all these milongas have to end so early? I wish we could dance until there is no one standing.

Taking the bus

For this trip I had the unfortunate idea to take the bus. I was thinking that if I take the bus I will be less tired when I get there and I was hoping to save some money as my car is a Jeep, not exactly known for it's fuel economy. Boy that was a mistake. Why? I left work Friday at 1:15. Drove to a t-stop, parked the car, waited for the subway, and made it to the bus terminal at 2:30. At 3PM the bus left and we made to chinatown a little after 8PM. We walked to WTC, waited for the train and made it to Adam's loft around 9:45 (we only took a 30 min "break" to have some dinner). So, subtracting the dinner time, I was on the road for over 8 hours. Pretty much the same when we got back. The cost? Between the bus cost, the trains, parking for the car, a short cab ride the grand total for both Debbi and I was ~ $100. The gas cost for a round trip with my car is about $75 and it would've taken us about 4-5 hours to get there. That was the last time I will ever take the bus anywhere.

NoTango Land

A few of the people I met during this trip live in places where there is virtually no tango. They all used to live in tango cities only to have to move away to follow their career. I was thinking, what would I do if I got a fantastic job offer in a place where there is no tango? Would I take it? I don't think so (unless of course I would have no choice). Would you?

Tango chat at sunrise

The Nocturne ended at 3:30AM, by the time we got out it was already after 4AM. We (the people staying with Adam & Ciko) were not going to make it to the 4:30 train, so we decided to have some food and take the 5:15 from Penn Station. When we got to the loft it was close to 6AM. You'd think that after two full nights of dancing everyone would just pass out. Nope. We hung out for a while talking about the music, DJing, tanda selections, etc. If this is not evidence of true passion, I don't know what is.

Seeking perfection?

Someone wrote a post about "tango stages". I was thinking about where I am in that classification and I believe I am in between the "Disenchantment" and "Contentment" stages. In the last few months I got increasingly frustrated with my tango experiences. I would dance with someone and manage for a brief moment to completely connect with the music, to feel it "perfectly" only to have the follower missing completely what I was trying to convey. I would be so disappointed that the moment was "wasted". I would allow that then to "taint" my experience and allow myself to come back home from the milonga depressed. But recently something started to change. I went to a local milonga a little while ago and I was able to enjoy some of the dances despite frequent little mishaps, despite missed leads, despite imperfections in the embrace, despite not being a "perfect dance". That gives me hope, as "perfect dances" are few and far in between. The dances I could not enjoy were the ones where I didn't feel the follower's desire to be in the embrace and I didn't feel her joy of the dance. Those were the dances I just wanted to be over. Most dancers have some endearing qualities, it's just a matter of finding them and enjoy that instead of "lock on" to shortcomings of the dance. How is that related to the subject of the post? It's not.

New space for nocturne

The space Adam booked for this month Nocturne is fantastic in my opinion. The dance floor is basically a "fishbowl", an area separated from the rest of the space with glass walls. You could sit at the bar without being subjected to loud music and still see all the "action" through the glass. The decor is tasteful (except for the Christmas decorations which were cheesy at best) and the location is great, just two blocks away from Penn Station. The dance surface is fantastic, the sound system is top notch, the seating areas have an intimate feeling without being isolated. I hope they manage to book this space on a permanent basis.

Something "old", something "new"

I realized that for me, one of the attractions in tango is the comfort in dancing with people I know I like to dance with combined with the thrill of discovering new favorites. The first few dances with somebody you haven't danced with before can be truly magical. Sometimes you KNOW it will be awesome the moment you get in the embrace. Every one of the people I love dancing with has a different embrace. Some connect chest to chest. Some in a slight V embrace. Some connect with their entire body from the waist up. Some rest their forehead on my cheek. The variations are endless. Some times the embrace it's not "perfect" at first, maybe there is some tension for example, but sometimes those imperfections melt during the dance. Or they become irrelevant. You discover the signature moves the other person has. Some move very slowly, like through molasses, some are energetic. Every step is a new discovery. The process is intoxicating. It was no different this time at GhettoTango. After dancing with a few of my favorite dancers I asked to dance someone I haven't met before. Of course, you watch the people dance before asking or accepting a dance, but watching someone dance can't tell you a lot. You can tell you're not going to hate dancing with them, but that's about all I can tell. When I asked Ms. ScarletCarnation to dance, I knew already she was a good dancer, but that was about all I knew. A tanda later I knew I had a new favorite dancer. There was another new face there which I will call Ms. GoldenJoy. The main reason I asked her was because I saw how her eyes would light up when she was watching the blissful look on the other dancers faces. I could feel her joy through the embrace and her sadness when the music stopped. One of the things that make an embrace great, even if it's not "technically perfect" is when you can feel your partner REALLY wants to be there, when you can feel their reluctance to break away the embrace when the song is over.

Conclusion

I had a great time. I'll be back in NYC really soon!

$7110.02 ...

2007-11-27T06:53:00.000-08:00

... is the amount in fraudulent charges made on my American Express card in the last 5 days. And American express never thought it was odd "I" was charging $3000 at Bloomingdales in NY at the same time I was paying at a restaurant in Montreal.

It doesn't seem like I'm responsible for those charges but still, it's stressful to know we're so exposed. What if that was my debit card? Not that I have that kind of money in my bank account but still.

Montreal again ...

2007-11-25T19:19:00.001-08:00

I'm in the car coming back from Montreal where Debbi and I went this weekend to dance. It was a nice trip.

Two of our tango friends came with us in the car, so we talked about tango most of the time, which made the drive seem much shorter then usual.

Friday we went to Moka Danse and we got there around 10. Since there was another special occasion milonga nearby, it wasn't nearly as crowded as it usually is. We met with a friend who recently came back from BsAs with a pair of Comme il Faut for Debbi, and once she put them on, Deb was so happy we quickly went to the dance floor to try them out. And they worked! Debbi was moving well and we had a couple of fun tandas.

My second dance of the night was with L, a girl from Montreal. We danced before and she is a beautiful dancer. While I'm guessing she is in her early twenties, she is been dancing since she was really young, and it shows. Great connection, fantastic musicality, warm and comfortable embrace. I liked the music, I was inspired and there was still some space on the dance floor so it went really well. The two tandas we danced together were probably the best I've had this weekend (with the two tandas I had with Marika a close second, as I was really tired when I danced with Marika and I was not as inspired).

After that, the Friday evening went downhill. It got crowded and I was too stressed out to enjoy myself, I seemed to have such a bad timing when asking people to dance (when I really liked the music the people I wanted to dance with were not available, when they were available, I didn't like the music or the floor was too crowded, when the floor finally cleared up, most people I was looking to dance with were done for the night). So aside from L, the couple of dances I had with E, our lovely host, and Deb, I didn't really had any great dances (in most cases it was not the follower's fault, I just was unable to get in the "zone") but none were bad.

Saturday morning we had breakfast with our hosts which was great (both the breakfast and the company), we hung out, talked about tango, practiced a bit and then later in the afternoon we went to do some food shopping as they were having some people for drinks before going out to dance. We had a blast talking with some of the people we often dance with, but hardly ever talk with, and then we went to a restaurant to have dinner. We had wine and fun conversation but it took forever to bring our food, so I got a bit cranky.

When we got there it wasn't very crowded, but it filled up quickly after we arrived. Me and Deb we danced for a few tandas but I was still cranky and that didn't go all that great.

After dancing with V (a very good dancer from Montreal) for a few tandas, my mood had slowly started to improve. While it was crowded, there were a lot of good dancers and the navigation wasn't too bad.

I danced with too many people to mention them all but I have to mention some.

R (a very sweet Romanian girl from Montreal whom I met at a festival in Montreal a year ago) was there. Somehow we didn't get to dance the last few times we ran into each other, so this time I asked her to dance as soon as we met. She improved a lot since the last time we danced, her embrace was very relaxed and warm and when I asked, she told me she worked with Marika on her embrace. It showed. If a follower finds herself in Montreal and wants to work on her embrace (and I can't see why she wouldn't, as it one of the most important elements of close embrace tango), I would highly recommend to seek out Marika. She is a very sweet person and her embrace is amazing. I have yet to meet anyone who danced with her and disagrees with that statement.

I danced for the first time with M, one of the DJs in Montreal. I wish I was more inspired and less tired, but it was a fun tanda. Between songs she asked how come she didn't see me when she was in Boston two years ago. When I replied I wasn't dancing tango two years ago she seemed very surprised. "But you danced some other dances before tango, right?". No, I didn't. It was nice to hear someone being surprised I've been dancing for less then two years. Sometimes I feel like I am plateauing despite my efforts, so hearing the surprise in her voice was a great compliment.

I had two tandas with Marika who despite not feeling well was just as amazing as always.

We left around 4:30AM and we crashed as soon as we hit the bed. Woke up at noon, we met a friend for brunch at one and we were back on the road at 3pm.

Overall it was a fun trip. I had a few great dances, most of the others were at least good, none were bad. We got to know M and E a bit more and they are awesome (and their apartment is gorgeous, Deb has a serious case of apartment envy). We met some fun people, socialized and spent a little time in Montreal, a city we really like.

Facebook

2007-11-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

Until a couple of days I was blissfully ignorant about the networking sites. I've heard people talk about them but I didn't pay attention. Until a few days ago when a friend sent me a message about some pictures she posted online and went through the link in the email to ... facebook.

Shit, now I have another addiction.

Last Nocturne at Empire

2007-11-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

To fend off some of the expected post-festival depression, Deb and I hopped in the car Saturday and came to NYC to attend the last "Nocturne" at Empire. We were expecting everybody to be there and they were. A & S were so kind to host us on such short notice and after the 4 of us had dinner at an indian restaurant, Deb and I headed to Empire for the class before the milonga. The class was not all that much fun but not many group classes are.

After opening the evening with Deb as usual, my second dance was with A from Princeton. She has a very warm and relaxed embrace, good connection and musicality. The last time (which was also the first) we danced together at the NYC tango festival on live music which I didn't like much so this was the first time we danced on traditional recorded music. While I wasn't uber inspired it was a very pleasant couple of tandas.

During the dinner with our host, we were talking about the best women dancers in NYC, making a list. It was not a very big list. As I was at the milonga I realized that most of them were there, and most of them are people with whom I dance with most times when we run into each other. When I feel like bitching about where I live I need to remember that I am luckier then most. One person on the list who was there and with whom I never danced before was V. S introduced us and I asked her if she was going to stay later, as the floor was crowded and I prefer to have space when I dance for the first time with someone really good. Unfortunately she was going to leave soon, so off we went. On top of crowded floor issue, the next two tandas were also completely un-inspiring, some lyrical music with a lot of vocals. I tried to make the best of it, but I'm afraid I didn't make a stellar impression... Maybe next time I'll have better luck.

The surprise of the evening was a fellow blogger, Nuit. While we met some time ago, last night was the first time we had a chance to dance together. She's only been dancing for 6 months yet she has a relaxed and warm embrace, she is pretty good at following through the steps (not anticipating movement), a clear sense of the music and one other quality that is difficult to come by, she doesn't tense up when stuff doesn't work. She is already lovely to dance with and if she continues to progress at the same pace, she has the potential to be pretty great. In between sets I told her I found her dancing rather impressive for someone that has been dancing for such a short time and she replied along the lines of "oh, you are too kind". Mmm, no, not really. I don't remember ever making a compliment I didn't mean or even "padding" a compliment. Just ask Deb ;-).

I got to dance with S again, and the music sucked both tandas. Speaking of the music, Avik from Ann Arbor was DJing, the tandas that I liked, I really liked, but he kept playing throughout the evening lyrical sets with a lot of vocals and little rhythm. While this type of music is pleasant to dance once in a while, last night I think it was one in 3 or 4 tandas. She is such a blast to dance with on the right music, it wasn't meant to be.

The lyrical music did work for me once last night. Marika from Montreal was there and I saw her sitting down after dancing with Felipe for a few high energy tandas. I felt a little guilty for not letting her catch her breath but she is hardly ever sitting and I thought if I waited any longer I'd miss my chance. She has such a lovely embrace and she is one of the very few people I really enjoy dancing on very lyrical music. Absolutely lovely two tandas.

R was there and we danced one set, but once again, I didn't like the music. But she has a great embrace so it was a good tanda regardless.

Toward the end of the night I danced with L for the first time. I didn't remember seeing her before, even though she started about a year ago. I saw her dancing last night and she looked good. After the first song I asked her if she is studying with Robin Thomas, and she confirmed. She has some signature qualities which made it very easy for me to guess who her teacher was. The embrace, the way she steps forward and some other details, (all of them positives). Robin is such a good influence on followers I can't really imagine how the NYC scene would be without him.

Ciko was hosting and dancing so I only caught her about ten minutes before the milonga ended, it was way past 4am. She is so much fun to dance with, but I was almost wiped out by then so I'm afraid I didn't have much to offer. When "La Cumparsita" started I went and woke up Deb, who crashed about an hour earlier and we had our last dance, both of us being wiped out. We did good considering ...

Now Deb is driving back and I'm writing this. Was this worth the cost? My Jeep is a gas guzzler, so this trip cost us about $100 in gas plus the other expenses. Probably, I had a great time.

Next week we're going to Montreal for a special event. Looking forward to that, despite the optimistically 5 hour drive.

Tango de Los Muertos

2007-11-14T11:56:00.001-08:00

It's Wednesday and I'm back to work. This time I was smart enough to get both Monday and Tuesday off (after the festival). I'm glad I did as I was exhausted. I was planning on doing some work around the house yesterday, but I didn't really do much the whole day. Worked a little on the pictures I took at the festival (I took over a thousand pictures, it will take some serious work to edit, crop and adjust all of them).

The festival was great. I mean, what is really important was awesome : the dancers, the music and plenty of time to dance. There were some things I wish were different, but I'll get to that later.

New friendships

Like it happens at every festival, I met new people with whom I had some amazing dances. Amazing for me that is, if they enjoyed it a 1/4th of how much I did, I'd be happy. I will mention the ones that are teaching tango in their cities, because while I never had the opportunity to take classes with any of them, they are such amazing dancers, and such awesome people, I have no doubt they have a lot to give. So, here they are in no particular order. Thank you Jenna (Portland) for the awesome dances. She has a such an amazingly active following style, and if you are a follower and you have a change to take a class, ask her to show you how to improve your giro, I can guarantee she can show you how to make it amazing. Oh yeah, and sorry Jenna for the 10000 left turns I was leading, they were just too much fun, I could not help myself... ;-) You know a dancer is amazing when it inspires you to do things that you were never did before, like that gancho which I didn't even think it was possible ;-) Thank you Charity (San Fracisco) for the most fun bar none I've ever had dancing on live music Thursday and on nuevo music Sunday. I did not think it was possible for me to enjoy dancing on live music or nuevo music. Boy, was I wrong. A very good dancer from NY told me one of his best tanda ever was with Charity. Same here. Her ability to maintain a connection (despite my sometimes awfully clumsy moves) was just amazing. After that tanda on Sunday afternoon, I was high on endorphins for at least half an hour. Thank you Christina (San Francisco) for giving me my first couple of tandas of the festival. DiSarli's Corazon is just too beautiful song not to dance to and thanks to you, not only it didn't go to waste, but I got to dance to it with a great dancer. She has such a calming way of moving, she managed to keep my upper back tension (my nemesis) down, which was an amazing accomplishment in itself.

Old(er) friendships

Then there were the people that I already knew. Marika (Montreal) with her amazing embrace, Mila (Kansas City) which I have to thank for my first two tandas at Sundays afternoon milonga, which set the tone for an amazing tango day. S (NY) which sadly I only got to dance with once at the height of the Saturday mayhem, and who was such a sport about my abysmal navigation skills and inspiration at that time. Shorey (San Francisco) the best DJ I know, with her amazing music on Saturday, I only wish I was more inspired when we danced on Friday. M from NY who is such a sweet person and awesome dancer, R (Princeton) who I rarely get to dance with, which put up with my milonga dancing, M (Chicago) whom I was so glad to see again after meeting her at the NY festival, S (Montreal) and many others.

And then last but certainly not least, my lovely Debbi, with whom I had the last dance each night (well, maybe I should say every morning) and who after less then one year of dancing she dances better then most.

The festival, the good

Tova & Carlos got a lot right with this festival. They managed to attract fantastic dancers from everywhere, they got amazing DJs, danceable live music (those of you who read my blog on regular basis, you didn't think I was ever going to say that, didn't you?), long milongas so we had lots of time to enjoy all those things (like 2 all nighters and the Friday till 3am). The location was Springstep which has great hardwood floors, a great sound system, plenty of parking and it's easily accessible. The themed milongas were fun, a lot of people got into it and came dressed in some very inventive outfits. I thought some of the decorations were inspired, some in my opinion were not (the vertical food thing was awkward at best), but I personally don't think decorations are all that important at a milonga, to me they are pretty much at the bottom of my list (way behind the layout, lighting, drinks and food). Tova & Carlos convinced a local restaurant to open at 5AM so people can go have an early breakfast after the all nighters, which was a nice touch.

the not so good (in my opinion)

table layout - Saturday, the layout of the tables and chairs was uninspired at best. Having chairs along both long walls and nothing else had everyone walk on the dance floor which created a navigational nightmare. I am surprised I have never seen any organizer using cordons to mark the dance floor. They don't take any space and I suspect they would be highly effective at stopping people from using the dance floor as a pass through area.

performances - In my opinion the performances were way too long (3 couples 3 songs each) and taking a one tanda break between the second and third couple was an odd choice at best. They were also very late, past midnight so all the people who were there for the performances were forced to stay longer they would've otherwise. The festivals where performances are scheduled separately, before the milonga are best in my opinion, as it gives one the option of not going to either the performance or the milonga if they don't want to. As far as the performances themselves, while technically perfect (as much as I could tell) they had a lot of acrobatics which I personally don't care for. They reminded me of gymnastics competitions, where the gymnasts are performing complicated heart stopping moves with a face expression that shows the incredible concentration required to do all that stuff. I fail to see tango in all of that. I watched the same people dancing socially later and I liked their social dancing a lot better.

crowded - In my opinion the large studio at Springstep was not large enough for the amount of people that were in attendance. Between 10PM and 2AM it was almost impossible to dance without getting injured. While the orange studio was opened as well on both Friday and Saturday, almost no one went to dance there. I tried, it just felt weird to ask someone to dance and take them to another room. I think more people would've used the room if it was designated as an "alternative/nuevo" milonga with a different DJ.

lighting - The lighting is awkward in the large studio at springstep and aside from that they only had two reflectors on a single stand. As a photographer I am more sensitive then most to the lighting and there is no way to properly light a room with one light stand. I wish some of the effort and money spent on decorations went to a better lighting setup. Which reminds me, I continue to be surprised by people's preference for dark rooms for milongas. How is a dark room more suitable for tango is beyond my ability to understand.

The conclusion

The positive far outweighed the negatives, it was a great festival, looking forward to the next year. And now I'm going back to the regularly scheduled post-festival depression ;)

"You're too greedy..."

2007-11-13T11:20:00.000-08:00

I took last night a private (tango lesson) with Tomas Howlin. Deb booked it and she asked me to join her. While there are countless things I need to work on, I had some doubts that I would get new useful information, I thought I was aware of my shortcomings.

Deb asked him to help her become a more musical follower and since I consider musicality to be the most important quality a dancer can have, I figured I would ask for the same kind of help. Tomas watched us dance for half a song and then he told me.

"You are too greedy". Since I started my quest on finding "the tango", improving my musicality was at the top of my list. Being able to isolate and dance to the various beats and melody was at the top of my priority list. And I got better and better at it. What I did sort of lose sight of is that there is such a thing as too much "musicality". Tango music is complex, the beats and musicality offer countless options to move to, but I forgot I don't have to dance to ALL of them. I am too greedy, I want to dance to all nuances (that I can hear), which is often way too much.

It's funny too, I was talking with Deb that day before the class about some dances I had with some really good dancers at TdLM. I have no doubt they had a lot of fun when we were dancing, one just can't fake that, but at the end of the tanda they seemed exhausted (not physically of course). Now I know why.

So we worked on the quality of a step, the ways one can step, transfer weight (make it shorter, longer, delay it, etc), on how to use the upper body to communicate that to the partner.

It was time and money well spent. I just wished I did this sooner. Tomas is a great teacher and I would highly recommend him to anyone that wants to learn what is truly important about tango.

Guerilla milonga

2007-10-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

Since yesterday I had an itch to dance, but there was nothing going on in Boston, I decided to do something about it. Late afternoon I sent an email to all the people from Boston I have an email for, inviting them to a "Guerilla Milonga". That is a milonga that takes place in a public space (in this case the Porter Sq subway station) without permission. Subway stations are perfect for this as if you're getting kicked out, you just take the train to the next station and start again ... ;-)

I was there at 8:30 as I promised I would. Debbi was working late so I was alone. Good thing I had a book, as it was at least 9pm until one other person showed up. Unfortunately it was another leader. Then around 9:30 another leader showed up. Huh ... Part of the reason I wanted to do this in a public space was to expose people to real argentine tango and see if we can grow the community. Well, it seems like a catch 22 here, to expose people to tango you need some people to dance tango with ... All together, by 10:30 there were 7 of us, 3 followers and 4 leaders.

It was actually fun, we danced until midnight. No one bothered us, but I did notice something funny. People in Boston are socially awkward. They would pass by pretending they didn't see us, until they would be at a "safe" distance and that's when they would stop, turn around and look for a while. It's like they were ashamed they were looking. Next time I will bring a big sign that says "We're not selling anything. Please feel free to stop and look".

I'll try this again at some point. I'll try next time to give people more notice. If you are from Boston and you didn't get my invite yesterday, send me an email, I'll add you to my list. Which I will never make public.

One other thing about US and the east coast in particular is that people are workaholics. Quite a few replies to my invitation said things along the lines "I'm swamped at work". Huh? At 9PM? I miss home sometimes (that would be Romania). People can't wait to leave work. People go to work because they have no other option. Here people buy more stuff then they can afford then they have work 12 hours a day to pay for it. This is in my opinion the devastating effect of easy credit. Romania was a cash society. If you don't have the money, you can't buy it. Unfortunately that is changing. Along with McDonalds, the easy credit, financial trouble and obesity is finding it's way to that part of the world as well. Bummer.

Seasoned vs. "young & pretty"

2007-10-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

There were a few (rather bitter) remarks from some (presumably older) tangueras some time ago, about leaders who'd rather dance with the "young & pretty" women, even though they are less skilled then themselves. They of course attributed that to the male hormones.

That may be the reason in some cases, but from my experience, observations and discussions I've had with other men, it's not the reason in most cases. First, some of my favorite followers are women in their 40s and 50s and I would dance with them any time, no matter how pretty are the alternatives, but I just realized last night, when I go dancing, I will usually either dance with the really good dancers, or with the promising "beginners". In most cases, they are young (hence, pretty I guess). Why would I dance with a beginner over the more seasoned veteran dancer, who, while not great, is certainly better then the beginner?

Because in most cases, they are not good enough and they plateaued many years ago. Which means their dancing is unlikely to get any better, they are certainly not looking to improve, most never ask for feedback, most don't come to practicas. The "young & pretty" have a chance to become dancers I really enjoy dancing with, and by dancing with them I can help them progress in the "right" direction. They ask for feedback, they try to get better, they show up at practicas and they do get better.

A few cases in point.

There is a woman in the community, she is absolutely gorgeous. Young, beautiful, amazing figure, pleasant personality, yet if one pays close attention, very few of the good leaders are dancing with her and even the ones that do, they only do it rarely. Why? Because she has an awkward embrace, she almost never shows up for practicas, and even when she does, she never asks for feedback. As a result, I have not see her improve a bit in the six months or so I've known her.

There is another woman in the community, she just started 3 or 4 months ago. She shows up at nearly every practica, she asks for feedback, she tries to apply what is suggested and she is getting better every week. I have a feeling she will be a hit with the better dancers in Boston and everywhere else.

There is a woman in Montreal, she must be in her 50s, she is a great dancer and I can guarantee you she will dance as much as she wants to, with the best leaders, even if all the contenders in the Miss America pageant would flood the room.

So, if you see that you're being passed for the "young & pretty", chances are you are not as good as you think. You may be more skilled then them, but not skilled enough for the leaders you want to dance with, but since you're not getting any better, there is no incentive for them to dance with you. If you want to change that, go to practicas, go early, ask the better leaders for feedback, pick an area they point out and work at it. Most better leaders will go out of their way to help out someone that shows an interest in getting better.

There was another argument I heard "Some people who love to dance with me at some times, they just ignore me at other times". A good (and smart) dancer will do his or her best to create the appearance that he loves dancing with his/her partner, as that usually makes the partner dance at his/her best. That doesn't necessarily mean they love dancing with you, they just made sure they were trying to get the best experience they could. So once again, the solution for that is to get better.

Now, it's true, when everything else is equal, most people, men included, will go for the "pretty". I imagine most women would rather dance with the handsome dancer rather then the old, fat and bald one, if they are just as good dancers. You just have to become good enough that people love dancing with you or show that you are heading in that direction.

I am sorry if this will hurt some sensitivities, but I'm kind of getting tired of all the men bashing that's becoming so fashionable lately, so I figured it would be useful to hear another perspective.

Djing the Odd Tuesday Milonga

2007-10-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

My first milonga as a DJ was supposed to be tonight. So last night, when I went to the "Odd Tuesday Milonga" I took the laptop with me to work on some play lists. When I got there, Steve, the host, was fumbling with his laptop, looking kind of frustrated. It seems he was missing some music so I said, you know, I have my laptop with me if there is a problem with the music. He looked at me, said, "you want to do the music?", I said, "Uhh, sure". So there I was, 10 minutes away from the milonga start, with no play lists, no cortinas, on my first night as a DJ at a milonga. Sweet!

It's tough to say how did I do. Most people were dancing at all times, so I'll take that as a good sign, but aside from a couple of them, no one came to say if they were liking or disliking the music. I did ask K, who is Russian, and if you want a blunt response to a question, the best people to ask are Russians or East Europeans. He said it was OK, he didn't particularly like it or dislike it, but he liked the music I play at practicas better. Huh... I thought I did play sort of the same music. I did save my ad hoc build play list, so I'll look to see how it compares with the lists I made for practicas.

Tonight I'm DJing again and tomorrow I'm DJing the practica at MIT. That's a lot of DJing this week.

DJ debut ...

2007-10-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Wednesday it will be my first time DJing a milonga. I've been Djing practicas for a while now, but this is the first milonga. I will DJ from the laptop, but I'm planning on loading a backup playlist on my mp3 player and burn it on three regular CDs, just in case things go terribly wrong with the technology ...

So, if you live in Boston, come check it out! If you like traditional music that is, there will be no alternative music at this milonga.

New milonga-practica in Boston? Poll.

2007-10-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

I am considering organizing a new weekly event in Boston, a ... practilonga, a combination of a milonga and practica. That means a relaxed atmosphere, people feeling free to dance or practice, depending on their mood.

I created a poll to get some input from the Boston tango community. Please refrain from voting if you are not active in the Boston scene.

Here is the link for the poll :
Poll

If you have any other suggestions/comments, please feel free to use the
Message Area

Musicians vs. dancers

2007-10-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

In the last few days I've been exchanging some emails with a prominent musician, about contemporary tango music, dancing and live music. It all started when I expressed my desire to hear more "Golden Era" arrangements when live music is played, as opposed to hearing the late Pugliese/Piazzola which most musicians seem so fond of.

During this email conversation I realized how huge the disconnect is from the musician to the dancer. While well intended, as he took time of what I have no doubt busy schedule to explain and educate me on his values, preferences and music in general, he was extremely condescending, his tone is his emails amounting to what an adult would use to talk to a 4 year old who challenges his infinite wisdom.

Now, he is being playing tango music for decades, so I am a 4 year old when it comes to my ability to intellectually understand tango music (or any music for that matter), but he is convinced that since I don't know any music theory, I can't possibly comprehend the concept of harmony, I don't know what rhythm is not am I able to hear the phrases which create the melody. And he is probably right, I can't do that, no like himself or other trained musicians can. But while I can't listen to the music intellectually, I listen to it instinctively. If the harmony is not "right", I won't like the song, if the rhythm is not "right" I won't feel the desire to dance to it, if the melody is not "right" I won't be emotionally touched by it.

His attitude is "you are all musical illiterates, shut up and listen to what I am playing, as I understand music, and you don't". Interestingly enough, I do understand his point of view. Many people when they look at some of my pictures, they are in awe of the pretty, colorful sunsets and kind of confused about the black & white abstracts I love. They hold dear a badly focused, badly exposed, badly composed picture, because the content touches them for some reason. I lost that ability, when I look at a badly exposed, focused and composed picture I can't enjoy the content, no matter what it is, the "presentation" completely ruins it for me. Even my limited photography "education" had that effect on me, I can only guess what happens after playing tango music for over two decades. I don't think they are able to see the beauty in the simplicity of the music I like.

What is my point? In my opinion, today's professionals tango musicians lost their "innocence". Or they likely never had it. They never listened the tango music with a non-professional ear, so how they can possibly comprehend how I hear it? They know everything there is to know about tango music, they hear things most of us can't, and they don't understand how most of us, the dancers without a music education, listen to music. They all keep playing the same music, Piazzola, Pugliese or arrangements like that. They rarely, if ever, play the "Golden Era" arrangements. They are too simple for their skills. They (and the musician in question) justify their selection by saying that they can't all play the 40s music, or tango would die and they played for the greatest dancers in the world, who love their music. That Piazzola/Pugliese revolutionized tango music. While I actually like to dance to some of the Pugliese's interpretations, I really like the pre-revolutionary music. I would say that most people do too, otherwise the DJs would all play Pugliese & Piazzola the entire night.

So, as far as I am concerned, tango music, the music that most of us, the music illiterates like to dance to, actually did die. Luckily, we have the recordings. I'll have to learn to put up with the live music performances. And no, I will not do it quietly.

If you have any thoughts about live music at milongas, feel free to add a comment.

New York tango festival, Oct 2007

2007-10-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

I had a great time. There were a few things that rubbed me the wrong way, but I think this was one of the better festivals out there. I'll write more about the festival itself in a review I'm planning of writing. Until then, I'll just write about some random experiences.

Taking chances

One of the ... "catch 22's" at festivals is that I have to choose between "safe bets" or taking chances. By "safe bets" I mean dancing with people I know I love to dance with, or take a chance and ask someone new. It's a tough choice, especially at a festival where the milongas where annoyingly short, so the time was limited. By now I know most of the great dancers in NYC, and a lot of the tango festivals regulars, I certainly know enough of them to dance non-stop without ever dancing with anyone new. And it's tempting. It's not like I get to dance with them all the time, and I'm talking about really, REALLY good dancers. So why take a chance? Well, at the last milonga on Sunday, a girl who seemed somewhat familiar came and asked me for a dance. I was looking for Deb at that time, so I had to decline and I suggested that maybe we can dance later. Fortunately, I ran into her again a bit later and asked for a dance. It was so much fun, despite the fact that we danced on live music, which I generally dislike to dance to. So, thank you A (from Princeton?), it was a lot of fun. Taking chances pays off sometimes.

A new "tango crush"

As I was writing before, I know by now a lot of truly gifted dancers, and I am lucky enough to be able to dance with them on somewhat regular basis. But once in a while you meet a dancer with whom everything just works... Our host A, one of the (better) instructors in NYC suggested I dance with this woman, M from Chicago, whom I never met nor seen before. Now, since she came highly recommended by A, I was of course expecting her to be good, but ... wow. The first time we danced together was at one of the practicas, I think we danced for 3 tandas in a row. I never used this expression, and I'm glad, because I can use it now appropriately, it was tango bliss. Sometimes when the first dance with someone is amazing, the next ones are disappointing. It wasn't the case with M, we danced a few more times during the festival, each time for a few tandas (I can't really remember, being in a cloud and everything) and they were all just as good, if not better. I just hope she enjoyed it at least half as much as I did. After we danced at the practica we asked each other for feedback. "What do I need to work on?" she asked. Uhh... Mmm... and for the first time in my (tango) life I had ... nothing. I mean, I'm sure there is something she could work on, everyone needs to work on something, I was however unable to come up with anything. And that's a first!

Robin's practica

We made to NYC Thursday afternoon, but instead of going to the festival opening milonga, we went to Robin's class & practica at Empire. Why? Well, from all the teachers in NYC I took classes with since I started tango, I like Robin the best, he also seems he was involved in the tango education of a lot of followers I love dancing with. I am glad we went there. Not only I got a chance to dance with some of my favorite NYC dancers but I also learned a rather cool move, a wrap the follower does around my waist. Open embrace stuff, but cool anyway. If I ever find myself in NYC on a Thursday evening, I know where I'll be.

Group classes

My frustration with group classes was renewed. Unless one goes with a partner, it's a complete waste of time. There were people in the advanced class that could not lead or follow the cross. So, for whoever reads this, taking a group class significantly above your level is not only a waste of your money and time, it's also a waste of money and time for whoever is unlucky enough to be partnered with you. I wish teachers would have enough balls to kick people out of the class if they are not at the level required.

Active followers

There are women who's style of dancing is very calm, very reactive, kind of dancing with a cloud. Others, are the exact opposite. They are energetic, they play with the dynamic of the step, they take any opening given to them to express themselves. They are both a pleasure to dance with (when done right of course). The latter kind of follower though, is rather intimidating for an emerging leader. The first truly active follower I danced with was Shorey Myers, I wrote about that experience and it was one of the best danced I had to date. A few months ago I had a chance to dance with S, a woman from NY I've seen around, dancing with all the "stars". She is another of those active followers. It was a lot of fun, but it was nothing like it was this time. We danced three tandas in a row and by the end of the third one, I was feeling like I just had an espresso shot. One of the best dances to date. To top it off, she said "You have improved a lot since the last time we danced together". That was reassuring, as at times I was feeling that my progress was slowing down. And that would be bad.

Following

At one of the practicas I followed a leader from Princeton for a bit, and I did better then I was expecting, considering I haven't followed much lately. It's funny how illuminating is to follow and feel how one thing or another actually feels from the other side. It's also quite fun not to worry about navigation ...

Beginner dancers at festivals

I recently read some posts from a less experienced dancer about her experience at the festival. Not surprisingly, she didn't have as much fun as she was hoping for. If you are a (relative) beginner, keep this in mind about festivals (and other one time, well attended events) :

- The better dancers, who normally will dance with you at regular milongas will likely not have the time at such events. In most cases there are too many great dancers from afar with whom they don't have the chance otherwise to dance with.
- If you decide to go anyway, go at the beginning of the milonga and stay until the end. At both ends the options are usually more limited and your chances of being asked (or your invite to be accepted) are higher. Attend practicas before you attend milongas. Most better dancers will gladly spend some time working with a promising dancer at a practica, where at a milonga they might just dance with their favorite dancers.
- Work the room. Walk to a dancer you'd like to dance with and say something to the effect of "I enjoyed watching you dance and I would like to dance with you at some point if you have the time", smile, and then walk away. Don't grovel. At many large festivals, it's unlikely a good dancer will take the chance to accept a dance from someone they didn't see dance. Once you talked to them, they will be more likely to notice you dance and come ask you later. Some may even say, "what about now?". It's also almost risk free, since you are not putting them into a corner, it's very unlikely they would flat out say no.
- Don't look like you swallowed a rancid egg, be friendly, smile at people. Don't look over eager or desperate (which means, don't look like you're trying to catch the eye of anyone passing by)
- Choose a spot to sit and stay in that area, so people will know where to find you.
- If you are chatting with friends, don't face each other. Make sure you face the room, otherwise it will send the message that you are not interested in dancing.
- Don't stay in the dark
- If you are a beginner leader, the things that good followers are impressed with are the quality of the embrace and musicality. Not figures. Do not, under any circumstances, try the new cool moves taught at the festival. Don't try any move you can't execute perfectly 20 times in a row. A comfortable walk on the music will feel better then any badly executed figure. Obviously that is true anywhere, not just at festivals.
* If you are a beginner follower, don't think. Don't try to do things. Close your eyes and listen to the music and your leader. Try to have a relaxed embrace (I follow a bit, I know it's not easy), and don't pull. As a leader, there is NOTHING that bugs me more then a follower who anticipates my lead.

Generally, I would not encourage beginner dancers to go to festivals. It's usually a tough crowd.

To be continued ... (at some point)

Weekend

2007-09-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

The all night milonga

Saturday it was that time of the month, the 4th Satruday when the all nighter in Providence takes place. I was happy to see a much better attendance this month then what we had over the summer. Quite a few people from NY joined the party and this time Boston was better represented as well.

We made it there around 10 and we left around 2:30AM. I was kind of surprised at myself. At 2:30 there were still plenty of people dancing, most of them good dancers, yet that didn't stopped me from calling it a night. I wonder if my tango obsession is fading a bit. It doesn't feel like it, but I don't seem like I close the milongas anymore, I don't feel the need to attend every single one and on (rare) occasions I prefer to do something else. I've had a few good dances but the best one was with K, a girl from NY. She is really young, I don't thing she's 20 yet, but she is already a very good dancer. Somebody took a picture of us dancing on his camera phone, and it's a surprinsingly good shot. It doesn't happen often that both people look good. I usually look like a drooling idiot.

I also had a chance to dance with someone who is considered a fantastic dancer by the US community. I could not connect with her at all. And I mean, at all. It was the only time when I danced with a tango "god" when between each song I was hoping the cortina would come. I was not having a particularly bad night, so it was surprising. Good thing I didn't have that dance at the beginning of the night, it probably would've killed my mojo completely.

Workshops

Sunday I went to a workshop at MIT taught by Daniela and Luis. I like them. They are attentive in class, they allow people to practice without interrupting every 30 seconds, like a lot of other instructors do. They go to each person and they (try to) correct whatever issue needs to be corrected. They also seem genuinely dedicated to make better dancers. The workshops where also about elements that are critical to the development of a good dancer. Embrace, connection, the dynamic of the dance. Unfortunately the attendance was light, I'm guessing because it's hard to sell the critical but "boring" stuff over the flashy colgada/volcada/jumps. I only attended one of the workshops, as I wasn't in a tango workshop disposition.

Practica

After the workshop, I went to the Sunday afternoon practica where I only stayed for 45 minutes or so. I just wasn't in the mood. I danced with a great dancer I had a fantastic (first) tanda with a week ago, but this time was remakably unremarkable. Funny how that happens. I then spent the rest of the time working with a new dancer. She just started and after watching her being manhandled by some of the "experienced" dancers in the community, I had to spend some time to try to undo some of the damage these people do. Why on earth these people feel compelled to try advanced figures (which themselves can't lead to save their lives) with a complete beginner is beyond me. Anyway, she shows promise.

Women leading ...

2007-09-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

There is a blogger who's postings I've been enjoying for a while, and at some point in her tango career, she started leading. Apparently that sparked a lot of mixed reactions, some of which I find odd. She was writing about people (mostly men) making nasty comments and getting weird reactions from women. And this is not happening in some god forsaken part of the country, but in a cosmopolitan, allegedly progressive city.

So, if any of these men are reading this, let me congratulate you. By making those comments you are without a doubt identifying yourself as the insecure, misogynistic assholes you are. Are you afraid that you will become obsolete, when enough women will learn to lead and the other women will prefer to dance with someone that actually knows how to dance? You should. Actually I have a bit of an advice for you, quit while you are ahead. THAT will show them and by depriving them of your sublime dancing skills, you will have your satisfaction. And we'll have a asshole free tango scene. Everybody wins.

Americans, particularly women, are taught from a young age to be "nice", to be politically correct, to avoid confrontation, which is rather amusing considering the position of US in the world. So it's likely that not many of these assholes are confronted, which only encourages them to keep at it. I on the other hand, am not American. I didn't get the "be nice" indoctrination. There are a few women leaders in my community I really like. Debbi, my girlfriend is learning to lead. If I ever hear about anyone giving any of them a hard time, I promise you, I will make it my mission in life to make your life so miserable in the tango community until you'll quit. I embarked on quite a few of these "missions" in my life and I have yet to fail in accomplishing any one of them. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So, my advice to you? Feel free not to like women leading.

Just shut the fuck up!

2007-09-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday I went to a monthly milonga but I went late, as Deb was not feeling well and I didn't want to leave her home alone for the entire evening. I considered not going at all, but I was restless. Once I got there, it was just in time to catch the show. I hate shows at milongas. Particularly choreographed shows like this one. That didn't do a lot of good for my good spirits. I always prefer to see the tango "Gods" dancing socially. What I find interesting is that most visiting Argentine teachers almost never dance socially in the local milongas in the cities they teach. I've seen this in both Montreal and Boston. Anyway, after the show the music was ... well, I hated most of that as well. Weird songs, awkward sequencing, ear piercing loud cortinas, I cannot figure out to save my life why they insist on using this particular DJ. He's obviously not interested in DJing, most times he's nowhere to be found. He sets the computer and disappears. The volume is either too loud or too low, too much bass or too little, etc. Some tandas were OK though, and when one of those started, I went and asked Fernanda Cajide for a dance. She is one of the local instructors, the only Argentine instructor in Boston. I like her teaching style especially for beginner classes, and when people are asking for me to recommend a teacher, it's usually her I recommend. I danced with her before many times, and I always got this vibe that she was just indulging me. This time though she seemed like she was genuinely enjoying the dance and at the end of the tanda I had another first, she stayed for a second one. That never happened before. After that I danced a set with A and it was quite fun, although she was kind of wild, as she just danced with K, and they are really wild together. Danced the last song with a girl that just moved to Boston this week. She is a good dancer, but I had a hard time with the connection. That's why people dance tango more then one song, it's just not enough to adjust to the other person, unless you know them well. Was it worth the 45min round trip drive and the $12 admission price? I had some good dances but I'm not sure if they managed to offset my frustration with the music.

Friday @ Naranja

2007-09-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

The practica

Friday we went to Naranja milonga hosted by Tova & Carlos. For the most part I liked the music and I had a good time. We started the evening with the practica and I was trying to figure out a wrap when Carlos came to see if I needed help. For those unaware, before the milonga there is 1:30 of supervised practica. Tova & Carlos are very dedicated people and the entire time they went from person to person offering their help and advice, After Carlos effortlessly lead Deb through the wrap I was failing miserably to lead, he explained the mechanics and voila, 2 minutes later I was doing a ... rough version of it, but it was (sort of) working. Now I just need to practice it. Towards the end of the practica Tova came by and said, "You must be the only one I haven't danced with at this practica, want to dance?". Uhhh, duh! We danced a couple of tandas and it went better then the last time I danced with her. Can't tell if I got better or she dumbed it down for me.

Slacker

During the actual milonga I danced with some local tangueras, some more advanced, some beginners. Speaking of beginners, there are a few beginners in the community that show promise and I'm glad to see that some of the better leads are keeping them busy. Lately I've been slacking off in my efforts to help the community grow and improve so I'll be trying to catch up. As a more experienced leader, it's always good to dance with people who are not too advanced. It helps refining the quality of the lead, it helps making it clear. Dancing with advanced dancers is obviously more fun, but the good ones are almost reading your mind, so I found that lately some of my leading got less clear, as it didn't need to be. Besides, I have to remember my gratitude to the people who danced with me when I was just starting, and try to pay it forward. Besides, sometimes when you dance with someone who's just starting, you can read from their face when they have a tango moment "Ahhh, that's how that's supposed to feel like!", and that alone is worth it.

A tango moment

Towards the end of the night, I've noticed a leader I've seen a few times during the last 6 months. He used to live in Boston but he moved abroad before I started tango and only came back a few times for business. He is an amazing leader, and this time I know this from first hand experience as I danced with him once in Providence. He lead me though a milonga set. Trust me, if a leader can lead me successfully though a milonga set, that makes him pretty much a miracle maker. In any event, this time he didn't show up alone, he showed up with his wife, which I never met before. I was hoping to get a chance to dance with her, but I was not holding my breath. She seemed the kind of dancer that would not sit too much. A bit later there was an alternative set being played and I look to my left and ... there she was, sitting down alone. Could not help but curse, as I have no desire to dance on alternative music, much less with somebody new, much less with somebody good. I was quite sure someone would ask her to dance before the alternative tanda was over but this time the tango gods were on my side and when the next traditional tanda started she was still there. So I went ahead and asked, she looked at me and for a second or two she looked like she was going to decline the invite, but she got up and off we went. After a clunky start, as I was trying to maneuver around a bunch of people who were talking on the dance floor, things got better and better and better. She is an awesome, awesome dancer. Did I mention awesome? Musicality, embrace, the whole "package". I was kind of hoping for another tanda, as she seemed like she had a good time, but ... it was announcement time! Grrrrrrr. But, she didn't go anywhere and after the announcement I got to dance another tanda with her. And it got even better then the first one. Well, I was happy, this was a "tango moment" and I didn't have one in a while. It was a good night. And they are moving to Boston, so I'm looking forward to dance with her again.

"You should never ... You should always ..."

2007-09-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

Recently I've read and heard in person a lot of ... wisdom about tango dancing. One blogger in particular has an affinity for buzz words/phrases, like "lead with the core" or "the right hand (of the follower) is useless in close embrace" and a myriad of other bits of advice which are advertised as absolutes, as in, you're committing some sort of tango sin if you dare to do otherwise.

For the very experienced and accomplished tango dancers, this is just noise they got used to, but for a beginner it's very confusing. Especially when these things come from people with authority, like for example an Argentine instructor who's been dancing for 263 years and was featured in 17 movies. Which reminds me, what's up with the habit of introducing a teacher and making a big deal out of how many movies they were featured in? Who the hell cares about that? How is acting in movies or performing on stage relevant to the skills required to teach salon tango? But I digress.

So, when an instructor you respect utters an immutable rule "You shall not use your left hand for anything" and then at the next workshop with another tango guru you're taught to use that hand to lead something people get confused. Who is right? Who is wrong? Not only that, but if you watch those people dance, you are likely to see them break all the rules themselves taught.

Here is my conclusion and advice, as it stands now, after a year an a half of intensive tango. It may change in the future. Others may disagree.

There are very few, if any, hard rules in tango. Shorey Myers, one of my "tango crushes", insists for me to hold my left hand in a very specific way, advice also given by many other instructors or dancers. Yet two of my favorite dancers from NY, both of them amazing dancers, they both expressed their strong preference for the way I was holding my left hand, which was almost the opposite of what the "rule" said. They found it cozy and intimate and told me I should not change it. Lately I've been experimenting with different hand positions, the one recommended by Shorey being one of them, and several dancers commented positively about the "new" embrace.

Teachers will often simplify things for people at the beginning of their tango career, knowing it will come a time when the "rule" will not longer make sense. What do you do then? It up to you. Personally, I try to accomodate the preferences of my partners unless that impedes my dancing. If it does, I'll do what works for me. Luckily humans are too "flawed" to follow the same rules all the time. It would be very boring to dance if everyone would have the same embrace, same technique, same feel to the dance.

But, yes, there are hard rules, but some of them are hardly tango rules. It's common sense. Although lately, the common sense doesn't seem so common anymore. For those who misplaced their common sense, here are some of the "hard" rules :

Don't hurt your partner or others. Don't make your partner uncomfortable. Don't be a bitch or an asshole. Remember that people have feelings. Don't take advantage of people. Don't stink. Don't be dirty. Pretty much all of these rules are taught in the kindergarten. If any of these rules are a surprise to you, you may want to seek help.

There are some "rules" that are more important then others when it comes to the actual dance, but I'm not going to go there today. I'll just cover one subject which I consider the most important "rule" there is when it comes to dancing tango. It's a simple rule to remember. Here it is :

Rule : Don't forget to dance.

Let me explain. Tango is dance. A dance, by definition is moving to the music. For a movement to be a dance, there must be a correlation between the music and the movement. The absolute simplest correlation between movement and music is walking on the (main) beat. Walking on the main beat is the simplest form of musicality there is. It's the very first step of very many, towards being musical. If you are executing figures without any relation to the music that is playing, regardless of the proficiency and precision you are executing them with, YOU ARE NOT DANCING. I get sometimes compliments on being a "musical dancer". Musical dancer. Just the fact that the term "musical dancer" was coined it's sad. It should be an tautology (antonym of oxymoron). It isn't. Please make it an tautology. Pretty please?

Back from Montreal

2007-09-12T08:42:00.000-07:00

Monday around 9:30AM we made back from Montreal. We drove back the whole night right after we left the l'Academie milonga at 2AM. Well, Deb did, as I was too tired. Yeah, we're nuts. We didn't want to miss l'Academie, as it's one of the best milongas in Montreal, and Deb had to be back Monday at noon to teach a class ... So, after she took a power nap, she went to work ... As I said, nuts! ;-)

I had a great time even though dancing wise I wasn't exactly "in the zone". I started the evening as usual, with Debbi and then sort of hung out to check out the dancers. As I was sitting down sipping from a glass of wine a tall woman came to ask me to dance. I usually don't dance with people I did not see dance before, but she looked like she had summoned all the courage she had to ask, and I know well how rejection feels, so off we went. I danced the whole tanda in open embrace. This sort of became my favorite way of starting to dance with someone. Start in open, preferably on a vals and then proceed accordingly depending on how it works. I still have a strong preference for close embrace, but only with people who are a) truly comfortable with it b) able to keep their balance on their own. Also, in the case of much taller followers like this one (more then 3-4 inch difference), close embrace is awkward.

After that I danced with S one of my favorite dancers from Montreal. Sadly, I was not very inspired and the added complication of navigation on a crowded floor didn't help. As I was talking with M, a local leader, he pointed to a girl and suggested I ask her to dance as she is quite good. She soon became available and I went to ask for a dance. Turns out, she is Romanian (as I am). Small world. And she is quite good, although I had some trouble adjusting to her rather energetic movements.

Later in the night I danced with E, a girl Marika introduced me to last year. She has a lovely embrace, very smooth and balanced walk and I wish I was more "in the zone" but, well, sometimes that doesn't happen. Then I ran into (another) E, whom I met at the neo tango festival in the spring. She is a lovely dancer as well, with a pleasant embrace and a passion for the dance. It's quite interesting how some people are able to put a kind of energy during the dance that screams "I really love dancing". By contrast, I know of a few followers who, while a lot more proficient, they feel analytical and soulless on the dance floor.

Towards the end of the night I've danced a few tandas with an older woman I danced with before. She is really good and she is one of my favorite dancers in Montreal.

I ended the night as usual, dancing with Deb and once I stopped dancing I realized how tired I was. It's funny how exhaustion and/or pain are reduced while dancing (tango).

Sunday before the l'Academie we rode the bicycles through the city, had some food and we kind of kept it low energy as we knew it was going to be a long light. We were already tired from the night before, at Tango Fabrika, which we left around 4AM.

Tango Fabrika had a special all nighter Saturday, and I was looking forward to it as Marika, one of the hosts is my first "tango crush". She is so sweet and such an amazing dancer. I got to dance with her 3 or 4 tandas ( I always lose count when I dance with her) in two installments and it was just as lovely as ever. A big surprise was to run into R, a favorite follower from Princeton who was in Paris for the last few months. Apparently she just got back from France and went to Montreal for a conference where we ran into each other. She is a great dancer and we had a few wonderful tandas. She invited me and Deb to stay with her during the Princeton tango fest and hopefully I'll find a way to make it. I don't have any vacation days left, so I'll see how "creative" I can get ;-)

One frustration during the milonga was the music. I like Bulent, he is a nice guy, but his musical taste is heavily inclined towards electronica/neo tango which I simply can't dance to. He is accommodating and more then once he played something I requested and this is after all a neo-tango shop so I guess his selection was appropriate for the venue. But it was disappointing to see some great dancers being available, hear the music start and having to pass, as it wasn't something I would like to dance to. Or even worst, dance with a great follower, just to hear the next tanda start and to have to excuse myself and let them go.

Saturday during the day we hung out with Caroline, who was so kind to host us for the weekend, we went for a bike ride, checked out some shops (well, Deb and Caroline did, I had a book to keep me company as they were trying out outfits). At Caroline's apartment there was an outdoor grey cat always hanging out on the porch, we named it the "Fat cat". The "fat cat" was kind of lazy, kind of fat and very aggressive in her pursuit of affection. She would come next to us and relentlessly seek attention. "You will pet me NOW" was the unspoken phrase that seemed to transpire from her antics. Cute.

We also had a picnic on the porch. The street Caroline lives on is quaint and quiet, and after getting the key ingredients for a picnic which was supposed to take place in a nearby park, we decided to have it on the porch instead. Cheese, fruit, olives, fresh bread and wine. Yum.

Friday night we went to Moka Danse. The space was just as cute as I remembered, and it got just as crowded as I remembered ;-). From 11PM to 1AM it was impossible for me to dance and have a good time, as I was spending all my energy trying not to bump into people. After 1AM it cleared up a bit and I got to dance a bit. Deb left early, as she was tired, I stayed until about 3AM. I had some good dances, none of them fantastic, mostly because everyone was tired by that time, but I had a good time. The music was quite good too.

In conclusion, it was a good trip. We got to see Caroline again, had some great dances, a lot of good dances, hung out in Montreal, had perfect weather. Looking forward for the next trip there.

Planned obsolesence ...

2007-09-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

I like to tinker with things, so when I saw an ad on craigslist for a front load washer with "a leak" for $20, I figure, what the hell. If I can make it work, it's a hell of a deal. And if not, well, I'll only be $20 out. The seller even delivered it so after breaking my back dragging the thing in the basement, I ran it and sure enough, it had a leak. The leak was caused by a gaping hole in the plastic tub that holds the drum. That could be glued back, but it was obviously a sign of something else gone bad.

So, I took the whole thing apart and I found the problem. The "spider", the support that holds the stainless steel tub it's all corroded to hell and it broke down. I looked up the issue on the net and it looks like it's a well known issue with a lot of front loading machines, particularly Frigidaire (or Kenmore, which is usually made by Frigidaire). These things have been made like this for years, and they still make them from the same material. So, anywhere between 3 -6 years into using the thing, it will break and during the final spin cycle it will sound like a plane is crashing in your basement (the pictures are not from my washer, as I could not download them from my camera ..., but the damage looks the same, it's just worse. Btw, the pictures are from a 2 year old washer).

What's "funny" is that in the manual they specify that they warrant the inner tube (the one that breaks down) for 25 years. So you say, well, then, they stand behind their product. Uhhh, sure, they warrant the part. Which has to be installed by an authorized Frigidaire technician after the problem is "diagnosed". Since changing the part requires taking the thing apart completely, the diagnosis ($80-$100) + the labor ($300-$400) will likely run you to 75% of the cost of a new one. And of course, it will fail again in 3-6 years. When it fails it may take other parts with it, as now you have a 20 lbs broken metal thing spinning at 1000 rpm. You would have to pay for thouse, as they are not in warranty after 1 or 2 years. I need to buy me some Frigidaire shares ...

So, enjoy your front load washer and the day you have it installed, start a savings account for the next one you'll be buying in a few years. I only paid $20 for mine, and I will try to fix it with some braces and epoxy, and I may get a few years out of it, but I cannot even imagine how pissed I would've been if I had paid full price for this piece of crap.

Here are a few other accounts :

http://applianceblog.com/mainforums/showthread.php?p=41570

http://www.complaints.com/2006/november/18/Problem__Sears_-_Kenmore_Front_Load_Washer__the_inn_3485.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/223/ripoff0223931.htm

Labor day weekend in NYC

2007-09-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

Since we were both sick the weekend of the LongaMilonga, Deb and I were looking forward to the New York trip this long weekend. So Saturday at the crack of dawn (well, more like 6:45AM) we jumped on the motorcycle and headed south. This time I decided to avoid I95 and I took I90 to I84 to 15 (the parkway). While it seems slightly longer, it is definitely a better way to get to NYC. The parkway is so much more tranquil then the I95. Except for the occasional dead skunk... Damn they stink!

We made to NYC around 11:30AM (got a call from work half way through the trip and spent at least 30 minutes on the phone) and went straight to the "La Práctica @ Dance Manhattan". While in theory a practica, many people seem to come here just to dance. I practiced with Deb for about an hour and then I danced a couple of tandas with S, a woman I met a while ago in Providence. She is a good dancer, but I could not find my balance with her in close embrace. I have to somehow improve my ability to ground myself as it seems like lately everyone but very few dancers are taking me off-balance in close embrace, which is why I've been dancing open lately quite a bit. I recently changed my posture to be more straight, I wonder if this is what is screwing up my ability to be stable on my feet.

At 2PM the practica was over and me, Deb, J, P, L and K went out to eat. J was on his way to the airport, heading to BsAs for 6 weeks. I should start taking some Spanish lessons ... We went to a Vietnamese restaurant, I had duck and ... it was pretty horrible. Stringy and chewy, I left most of it untouched. Normally I would've demanded something else, as it was not edible, but I didn't want to make L feel guilty since he chose the place. I also wasn't in a feisty mood.

From the restaurant we headed to the Central Park milonga. The initial plan was to go to the hotel and come back for the evening milonga, but the hotel was 35 miles away ($55 per night at a Holiday Inn in Stamford, CT sounded a lot better then the hotel prices in NYC) and I didn't feel like being on the road for at least 30min each way, probably more as it was a holiday weekend. So we went to the park instead. I was pretty tired already, and the night was young, so I decided I was not going to dance unless I would see someone I really wanted to dance with. After dancing with Deb a few tandas in the beginning, I mostly watched. I danced with P a couple of tandas, a former professional dancer which shows in her balance and ability to move to the music. While dancing in the park is quaint and romantic, the concrete floor is a pretty bad surface to dance on and floor craft is non existent. When P and I stopped dancing, a woman I didn't recognize came near us and P introduced her as I, her friend from Toronto and a great dancer which whom I should definitely dance. From the short conversation we had it seemed we actually met and even danced together in the spring, at the Nuevo tango festival. The fact that I didn't remember her at all seemed a bad sign, as I normally remember good dancers. Also, I don't normally ask someone to dance until I've seen them dance, it's usually the best for all involved, but I couldn't think of an elegant way of getting out of it so off we went. And I'm glad we did... She is a great dancer with a lovely embrace, musicality and following skills. Shortly after that, Deb and I left, as we were starving and wanted to grab a bite before heading to the "Noche de Tango @ Dance Studio 101"

After having some food, we made it to the milonga around 10PM. Good size space with great floors, a bar and some extra cheesy decor. It was also pretty well attended. After starting the evening with Deb as usual, I saw the woman from from Toronto and without many words off we went. With the help of a great floor and good music, we had a few fantastic tandas. She even hung out through a milonga tanda, which I didn't fumble too bad, but damn, I need to get better at milongas. After that, I thought I saw another dancer from NY I really love to dance with, D, and went to say hi. Only it wasn't her ... Ooops, well too late to back out now, so she got up and off we went. She is actually a very good dancer, but I had a hard time connecting with her. But sometimes that happens and I hope next time when we run into each other it will work out better. Then I ran into R, an amazing dancer from NY with whom I always enjoy dancing with. She has an amazing embrace, not to mention balance, following, musicality, etc. I was talking with her between tandas and I asked if there was one teacher in particular that she considered her mentor. Her response did not come as a surprise. Robin Thomas and Ney Melo. Robin seems to have been the catalyst that helped forming most of my favorite dancers in US, so, thanks Robin. You rock. Around 1AM we left as Deb was dead tired. I was kind of sorry to go, but I was pretty tired myself.

Sunday I was up at 8AM after only 4-5 hours of sleep. It's very difficult for me to sleep in. In the afternoon we went to Maria José's Práctica @ Stepping Out. The room is large and the floor is great, but there is hardly anyone there. Music was great though, so if you bring a partner with you, it's a perfect place to practice. Maria also said that soon she would extend the duration from 2 hours to 3, so that would make it even more attractive.

Then it was the Seaport milonga. There was a big concert near the main location, so until 9:30PM we went to the "rain" location, which is on Pier 17. But that place is small and it quickly became a zoo. Pedestrians who obliviously walked though the "dance floor", small children, etc. Then once we moved back to pier 16 it got better as far as space, but the floor on the pier is pretty horrific. It's an old deck, with all you'd expect, nail heads, splintered wood, uneven boards, etc. Deb had a great time, but I had a hard time getting in the "zone" while trying to minimize the damage to my own and my partner's knees and ankles, navigating around random obstacles included but not limited to dogs, bicycles, joggers, empty bottles, little kids, etc. But the real difficulty was the inability to pivot. I'm not experienced enough to limit my vocabulary (to exclude movements that required pivots for example) and still be able to relax enough to be able to connect to the music, to my partner and to have fun. So while I did dance with a few people, I didn't enjoy those dances as much as I would've enjoyed it on a decent floor.

We left "early" (around 1AM) again as we were spent. Again, I was sorry to leave, as towards the end of most milongas only the hardcore dancers are still standing and then you have the space to dance + good dancers. Besides, no matter how tired I get, I always have a hard time leaving a milonga.

So, was it worth the approx $200 hole in my wallet (hotel + gas + milonga costs)? Maybe. There are plenty of worst ways to spend money, and it may have been worth it if only to learn a few lessons :
- Try to avoid making trips to NYC while a major tango festival is happening someplace else. A lot of my favorite dancers in NYC were in Denver.
- Learn to better manage my resources. As in, make sure I'm not exhausted at midnight. Dance less, be more discerning, sleep more. While I did good at being discerning, the lack of sleep got to me.
- Bring some hard leather shoes for outdoor milongas. The dance sneakers were a bad choice.

Weekend in NYC

2007-08-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

After being sick last weekend and missing all tango events for almost a week, we were looking forward to the Labor day weekend in NYC. Until our sleeping arrangements fell through. Since we are both on a tight budget, we found someone to host us, but something came up and now, a couple of days before the trip, we have no place to sleep at. I just looked at "availability" of hotel rooms (which I can't afford), yeah, good look finding affordable room in NYC or even around it for the Labor Day weekend, two days before it...

Maybe I'll just pitch a tent in Central park.

Anyway, if any of you knows someone in NYC who can offer a little bit of floor space (we have an air mattress) this weekend for Saturday and/or Sunday nights, please let me know. Now I'm going to look for that tent ...

Alternatively, if a 2-3 people from Boston would like to spend the weekend in NYC and would like to share a room and ride, that would certainly make it more affordable.

Shitty weekend ...

2007-08-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

Friday at the milonga we left early as I wasn't feeling well. My stomach was upset. Once we got home it got worse and by morning I was feeling like I was going to die. Gas, cramps, nausea and weakness. After some pepto-bismol the nausea subsided a bit and diarrhea kicked in. Around 3pm, Deb was hit hard by the same thing. So instead of spending the night dancing at the all night LongaMilonga, which we were both looking forward to, we spent the evening in bed trying to watch a movie, between the often visits to the bathroom.

This morning Deb had to drive to western Mass and I have to run some errands. I wish a had a portable bathroom ...

The only thing I've managed to accomplish yesterday was to make the front pockets for a pair of pants I'm making. After spending a couple of hours on that, and finishing them, I realized the pant panels were cut using the wrong pattern. When I first took the pattern months ago, I made a pair of test pants and then I adjusted the pattern for a perfect fit. Now the panels are cut using that first rough pattern because I forgot to get rid of it ... Grrrrrrrrrr. The fabric is beautiful though, so I'll have to think of a way to salvage it.

OK, I gotta go now to pick up a stove. Hope to make it without ... accidents. Wish me luck ...

Tuesday

2007-08-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to the "Odd Tuesday" milonga. It's one of the better ones in Boston as far as the quality of dancers, but once the again the very limited space on the dance floor cramped my style. I doubt I will ever enjoy dancing in a crowd.

The only really good tanda was with P, a local dancer on some rather odd music before everybody arrived. Speaking of odd music, S, the DJ last night played some odd sets. Some people seem to enjoy dancing on music which is not normally played at milongas. I don't, I prefer to dance on music I really like, because if I dance on music I don't care for, my dancing becomes monotonous and boring, I just go on "auto-pilot".

So last night I decided on a new "strategy". Instead of just sitting when there is music I don't particularly like, I will ask the newer members of the community. They are unlikely to notice the difference, and it's very useful to dance with more advanced dancers as I learned very early in my tango "career". I would suggest to the more experienced dancers to do the same. You might make someone's night and help with the development of the community. Especially advanced followers, when you have 10 minutes to spare, find a beginner leader and ask him to dance. It helped me a lot when I was starting.

Aside from technique ...

2007-08-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

The quest for becoming a "perfect follow" or a "perfect lead" is a long one and it involves lots of practice to improve the technique. But there are some things that one can do right away, aside from technique, to make a single dance or an entire evening a better experience and PLEASE trust me, they are VERY important.

For both leaders and followers :
* NEVER talk (about people/room/shoes/scenery) to your partner (or even worst, with someone else) while dancing. Not only you are likely ruining it for him/her, but you are ruining it for everyone in your close vicinity. So, please do everyone the favor of shutting the hell up. If your partner is the "talker", don't talk back. In many cases, that should take care of it. If she/he insists, say you can't talk and dance at the same time.
* The milonga is the place where your joy of dancing should come out. It's not the place to refine techniques, to learn steps, etc. Many times I enjoyed dances with dancers who were far from being perfect, because I could feel their joy. Don't lose track of the fact that tango is a dance, and it's SUPPOSED to be enjoyed.
* For a lot of people it is extremely annoying when the music is drowned by chatter. So when you are on the sidelines socializing, lower your voice. Get closer to the person you're talking to, or move away from the speaker. Don't try to talk OVER the music for crying out loud.
* Do not be a "baby seater". If you asked someone to dance and they said, "I'm tired, maybe later", DO NOT SIT DOWN NEXT TO THEM AND WAIT FOR THE "LATER". Ever. The only exception to that rule is if THEY ASK you to sit down and wait with them.
* Bring more then one shirt/top, if you know you are sweating a lot.
* Use unscented deodorant (and yes, for the love of God, do use deodorant).
* Don't try to cover a bad smell with deodorant/perfume. It never works. Take a shower, now it's not the time to save money by conserving water.
* If on your way to the milonga, people in your close proximity had sudden respiratory problems, you may be wearing too much perfume. Knock it off.

For followers, under any circumstances do not :
* Look around while dancing, checking out people/room/shoes/scenery. Or, even worst, checking out yourself in the mirror. If you are easily distracted, close your eyes. Some follows like to assist with navigation, and it's useful ONLY when done right. That means, no head turning and not getting tense. If you can't help getting tense when other dancers are getting close, close your eyes.The only thing I should feel from you is a subtle increase in the groundness and/or a slight tightening of the embrace when you think the current direction we're moving could lead to a collision. The key words here are "subtle" and "slight".
* Second guess your leader in navigation. If your lead leads you to step somewhere, step, even if you think will lead to a collision (feel free to communicate your concern by the afore mentioned increase in groundness), but don't refuse to move (or worst, hesitate). I know I'll have some followers (and even leaders) disagree with this, "but he asked me to step on somebody's toes!". For the most part, you don't know that, since you didn't step. The other side of the coin is, do not dance with someone if you don't COMPLETELY trust their ability to navigate in the current circumstances. For example, if a beginner asks you to dance and you think they can't navigate competently in that environment, tell them "not now, it's a bit too crowded, how about later?". And do go get them later, when you think they can hack it ... errr ... I mean, do it.
* Apologize for ANYTHING but hurting someone. Whatever you do, NEVER, EVER apologize for missing a lead or screwing up a step. If you absolutely have to apologize for something, keep it until the dance/song is over.
* Allow your right hand to hang from your leader's left hand like a dead rabbit hanged in a tree. Unlike the tree, we get tired. And it doesn't feel that great holding a dead rabbit in one's hand either, I promise. Keep your own hand up please.

For leaders, under any circumstances do not :

* Aside for keeping an eye on your immediate surroundings, look around while dancing, checking out people/room/shoes/scenery. Or, even worst, checking out yourself in the mirror.
* Appologise for ANYTHING but hurting someone. Whatever you do, NEVER, EVER apologize for a step/sequence/figure that didn't come out as you wanted it. First, since she doesn't know what you wanted to do (hopefully, you are not trying to communicate verbally), she can't tell it didn't come out as you intended it. Second, it makes you look like an insecure leader, and we all know how much women love an insecure man...
* Teach on the dance floor at a milonga. While this is covered by the "do not talk" rule, it merits it's own space. Every time you stop to show your partner something, you are likely blocking the line of dance, forcing people to navigate around you. Which makes you an asshole. Stop that please. Most women resent unsolicited advice on the dance floor at a milonga anyway, so you are effectively shooting yourself in the foot there. If advice is solicited, get off the dance floor or at a minimum, go to the middle of the dance floor. If I see you trying to impress a beginner by "teaching" her your favorite (usually poorly executed) colgada-volcada-dip-sacada combination I will make it my mission for that milonga to dance with all your victims and gently inform them about milonga codes and what kind of leaders they should avoid. With a little help most women figure out the assholes pretty quickly.

And here are a few suggestions, they don't always apply, and they are not a huge deal, but at least consider them.

* For followers, take your glasses off. It's nearly impossible to dance close embrace comfortably with eyeglasses on. Consider contacts. This applies to leaders as well if you can still see well enough to navigate...
* For followers (not much a problem for men), don't wear anything that creates a bulge on your chest/abdomen, no matter how small (like dresses with a knot in front, jewelry, etc). It makes it very uncomfortable in close embrace.
* For leaders. If you get an erection during the dance, err on the side of caution and assume she's not appreciating it. Move to open embrace immediately if it's not visible or just excuse yourself claiming a "bathroom emergency".
* For followers, don't wear tight skirts, dresses. If you can't comfortably take a the largest step you can take wearing pants, it's too tight.

Feel free to add your own ...

God damn mega-pixels!

2007-08-15T06:20:00.001-07:00

Since many people are aware I'm a photography nut, not a week passes without someone asking me for a suggestion on their next digital camera, since they have an old one that can "only" take 3 (or 2 or 4) mega-pixels pictures and the pictures are not that great. So they want to know if 6 MP is enough, or maybe they need 9 or even 12.

Sigh ...

OK, I'll try to make this as clear and short as possible. The "mega-pixels" (the number of individual pixels the camera sensor has) is ONE of a camera's properties, GENERALLY the LEAST important. Why is everyone talking about MEGA-PIXELS then? Because the manufacturers exasperated by the the increasing dumbness of the general public they finally found a NUMBER they can print on the box. Biiiig number good! Small number baaaaad! So when you're looking at your camera and you see 3 (mega-pixels) and then you look at the one in the store and you see 12, you KNOW it must be the missing 9 meeeeeeega-pixels that make your pictures look like shit.

For those that are not convinced, here are two pictures. Both of them are roughly 1 mega-pixel pictures (click on it to see full size).

Can you tell the difference? If not, stop reading right now and have your eyes checked. Seriously. go now. Don't drive though, take a cab, you must be legally blind. On the top is a picture from my "camera" phone. On the bottom, it's a picture from my compact digital FinePix F31fd (which was set to capture a 1 MP image). Why are they different? For the same reason two 6 cylinder cars are different, one of them can be a recent marvel of engineering german car which gets to 60mph in 4 seconds and makes 30MPG, and the other can be a 1950 piece of shit that needs 4 hours to get to 60MPH and it barely makes it from gas station to the next. Not to mention looks, handling, brakes, noise, interior, ABS, sound system, etc. When you buy a car do you take into account more then the number of cylinders? I certainly hope it's the LAST thing you'd consider. The number of mega-pixels should be the LAST thing you should consider when buying a camera.

Incidentally, the Brownie camera that Kodak started to sell in February 1900 for $1 was likely able to take more clear pictures then more then 50% of the current crop of "camera" phones.

What's important then? Like with anything else, it's a complicated answer. It depends on how are you planning on using your camera. Are you taking most of your pictures outdoors during the day ? Then almost ANY digital camera will do. Do you take lots of pictures in low light and hate the way the flash make most faces look? Then you have to look for low light perfomance (sensor and optics). Do you often go in the wilderness for weeks? Then battery life/type might be important to you.

Here's a list with the most important properties of a camera to get you started.

* The quality of the sensor (flashless low light performance is a good approximation of the overall quality of the sensor and lens)
* The quality of the optics (here bigger, in size, is better. The smaller the glass is, the crappier it will be. Sorry, the laws of physics are at fault).
* Battery type and battery life (bigger battery is better)
* Autofocus speed (try to capture the kitten jumping around? A camera that needs 3 seconds to focus might not work all that well)

There are many other things to take into account and yes, it involves research and ... gasp... thinking!

P.S. I just bought a compact digital camera to have with me when I don't feel like carrying my (rather large) digital SLR. It a Fuji Finepix F31fd camera. Great little thing, only $250. So if you can't be bothered to do your own research, get this one. Sigh ... I know you'll be asking. It's a six God damn mega-pixels.

Video and photography at tango events

2007-08-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I am a passionate photographer and in the last few months I covered a few festivals and milongas (you can see the results on my website under EVENTS). I have a 9-5 job, as a computer programmer but I'm getting to a point where I'd like to stop doing that. As such, I put some thought into becoming a full time photographer. Part of that research was to see if one can combine tango with photography and try to make some money (not necessarily make a living just by covering tango events).

So for a few of the festivals I covered, I offered prints for sale, at what I thought would be a reasonable cost ($3.75 per 4x6 print). Alternatively, I also offered the full resolution files for a similar cost. While I was not expecting much, I was quite surprised to see that among the three festivals I covered (Alternative in Providence, Yale in spring and Boston in June), only ONE person purchased 3 prints. That's it. I was wondering if anyone cared to comment on that. Is this what you would've guessed? I know I would certainly pay to have some good shots of myself. One reason I can think of is that people could see (and download) a decent size picture from the web for free and apparently that is good enough for most people.

To try to clarify what kind of future a professional "Tango photographer" and/or "Tango/videographer" might have, I have a few questions I would like to ask the community.

1) If a screen resolution picture of you dancing is free to download, would you have any interest in a 4x6 paper print at $3.75? How about in having the full resolution file for $3.75

2) If a screen resolution picture of you dancing is NOT available to download (but rather just a tiny thumbnail size one or a screen size image with watermarking covering most of the surface), would you have any interest in a 4x6 paper print at $3.75? How about in having the full resolution file for $3.75

3) I was thinking about offering (at festivals and/or milongas) a service to record video of the patrons dancing (on demand). It would work like this, the interested party would come see me, pay a fee (per song), and we'd agree on timing. Then I would record them dance with their favorite partner (using a device that allows me to film from a height of 12-15feet, which would allow me to track them at all times). They would then get a DVD at the end of the evening with a high quality recoding. The price I have in mind right now would be $10 per DVD + $10 for each song recorded. So to have a full 3 song tanda recorded, the fee would be $40. If one more DVD (with the same content) is needed, for the other partner, it would be $10 extra. Is this something you would be interested in? Do you find the price: too high, low, about right? An example of a recording I made is here : http://youtube.com/watch?v=tATLum7aDCc . Obviously the quality the youtube video is abysmal compared with the original file which the customer would get.

I would appreciate any thoughts you might have on this issue.

Water heater ...

2007-08-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Last year one of my tenant's water heater broke down. I called a plumber and $800 later I had a new heater installed. This morning the water heater for my apartment went dead. Screw it, I'm not paying another $800.

Browsed craislist, found a listing for a relatively new one, drove to Rockport (50 miles away) and picked it up for $75. The gas will be about $20. Stopped at HomeDepot and spent $30 on parts and 2 hours later ... :
Hot water! Not bad for $125 (and 4 hours of driving stop and go traffic ... Grrrrrr). I'm going to take a shower now.

Connection between effort/performance and reward

2007-08-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

It constantly blows my mind how little connection between these two paradigms is in the tango world. The DJ plays crap music, everyone still dances. Some dancer sucks badly and they've been sucking for years, yet people are still dancing with them. From the dawn of time, evolution happened because there was a connection between performance/effort and the reward. You didn't move fast enough, you didn't eat. So you either learned to move faster or smarter or you'd die. The good old times ...

Listen, if a DJ sucks, he/she has no reason to change what he/she is doing unless there is a relation between his/her performance and the results (people dancing). In some cases, the DJ doesn't even know how badly they suck, since everyone is dancing anyway. Same with dancers.

So, when a DJ plays some music you don't like, walk off the dance floor. You PAID for the event, they are there to cater to you, not to play for themselves. When a dancer does something that's generally frown upon, walk off the dance floor, but DO TELL THEM WHY, as they might not be aware of it. It may sound harsh, but when I was a beginner, the few times when my partner thanked me in a middle of the tanda, I was disappointed AND confused. If a dancer is a bad dancer and he/she doesn't seem to improve, don't dance with them. That would make them either improve or quit. It's a win/win.

it's going to get worst before it gets better

2007-07-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

In the last few months I had someone tape me dance a few times (you can see them if you look here) and while it seems I continue to improve, which is a great thing, my posture still sucks. So recently I started to work on it every time I dance. Unfortunately that affects the connection, the embrace, it makes me feel stiff and to some extent it ruins the experience. But the more time I allow myself to dance with a bad posture, the more difficult will it be to fix it later. Sigh ... so I guess it will have to get worst before it gets any better. So, please folks, bear with me while I learn how to maintain a proper posture ...

Saturday I went to the LongaMilonga in Providence. It was better attended then last month, but boy, the summer sucks for tango. Not only in Providence, but in Boston too. Actually, I remember someone saying that in Montreal some milongas are closing for the summer for the same reason. Anyway, back to the Saturday's milonga, M, a favorite follower from NY came down with a bunch of friends, which was awesome, as she is not only a lovely dancer but a sweet person as well. We danced a couple of times, a few tandas each time, which were good. Good not great, because I'm still struggling to adjust my posture and on top of that, I wasn't feeling very inspired.

Among the other dancers from NY who came up for the LongaMilonga was S, a woman I've seen many times in Providence but somehow never got a chance to dance with her. Well, there is a reason, when the milongas are better attended she is busy dancing non-stop with all the tango "Gods" so she's kind of hard to get to. This time I had more luck. Wow, she is REALLY good. In addition to the good technique (balance, embrace, following) she has an amazing presence, it was so surprising it took me the better half of the first song to get used to it. In addition, she is very musical, making her contribution to the dance by using changes in dynamic of her steps, using her shoulders and by changing the ... "groundness", among many other things. And all of that while she flawlessly followed anything I lead. I can understand why the best leaders line up to dance with her, I certainly am her newest fan. Too bad I wasn't in the zone, it kind of sucks when it happens and you dance for the first time with someone. First impressions tend to last for a very long time. Not to say I sucked, she did after all sticked around for a few tandas, but I was pretty far from my best.

The music was quite good, Ramji V from Ann Arbor (he's in the area for a while) DJed and I did like most of his selections. One thing though, he played a few of my favorite songs at the beginning of the milonga, before the dancing started and I remember thinking "crap, this is a waste of a good song". Kind of a catch 22, if you don't play good stuff, people will not start dancing, but if you play the good stuff at the beginning, it's a bit of a waste. When I DJ I always keep what I consider the best music for later in the evening. I'd be curios how others feel about this.

At the practica Sunday it was sweltering hot. I got to practice with a few people, nothing out of the ordinary. Most people were very self conscious about being sweaty, so that didn't help. The music was fantastic though. I liked every tanda. Amazingly, that happens every time when I dj ;-)

back to work ...

2007-07-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

... after a week of vacation. Saturday to Thursday in Montreal then Friday to Sunday in CT for Yale's summer tango camp.

As you can read in my prior posts, the (Montreal International Tango) festival was a disappointment (though apparently festivals can be worst...). So Wednesday we (Debbi & I) went to the Studio Tango milonga and it was fun. Thomas Howlin was DJing, and the music was fine. I didn't care for some of his selections but that's to be expected. Even when I'm DJing and dancing I find myself thinking ... "what the hell was I thinking when I selected this song"

While the milonga went for 4 hours and I danced practically non-stop, I only danced with 5 or 6 people, all of which I danced with before. This raises an interesting issue. The more good partners one dances with, the more interesting dancing is, but so far I've been reluctant to "give up" a good partner for the chance at another good one. As in, if I find someone I like to dance with I usually dance until I need a break or they need/want one. For example Wednesday I asked an older woman, she is probably in her 50s (but one would not be able to tell from the way she moves). She is a wonderful dancer, the best leaders in Montreal line up to dance with her and we danced for 5 tandas in a row. Now, I could've walked away after say two tandas and maybe I would've found somebody else just as good. Or maybe not. Well, I'll eventually figure it out, this is one "problem" I don't mind having ... ;-)

Thursday morning we packed everything and headed back to my place, which we left Friday at noon to make it to the Yale's Summer Tango Camp site around 4pm (the drive only took about 2.5 hours, we had to run some errands). Friday evening there were maybe 10-12 people there, and I didn't dance much. Robin Thomas assisted by Kyla Mares taught a class on front ochos. I know that sounds too simple, I mean front ochos are probably shown within the first hour of any beginner class. But as it usually the case in tango, one can make any (simple) move into a fantastic experience and this class brought back to life the close embrace front ocho for me. I got to dance with Kyla a couple of tandas and she is not only good, but lots of fun to dance with. She is from Reno, AZ where apparently she is "growing" a small community. The big surprise came when she told me she was only dancing for a couple of years. Wow, that only shows how irrelevant "the years of experience" is as a metric for dancing abilities.

Saturday Robin & Kyla had another class, on milonga this time. I definitely like his teaching style with one caveat. I don't believe he allows for enough practice time before he stops the music to make another comment. Sometimes I would barely have time to execute the exercise once and then we'd stop again. But then again, maybe it's a good thing, it avoids practicing things the wrong way. While more people came Saturday, the milonga started late, around 11PM (the class went for 90 minutes before that) and it ended very early, around 1AM as everyone went to sleep or to hang out around the camp fire. That was kind of disappointing, but the room was very hot and humid, and the floor was slippery and I think people just got sick of dealing with that. While the room had lots of windows, all of them left open, there was absolutely no breeze, so that didn't help. I danced a little bit, the best dances were with Kyla and M, a follower from NY who I met at the last Longa Milonga in Providence. I also got to follow Robin which went well as long as he kept it simple ... Note to self : need more following practice ;)

Sunday we got up late, made breakfast and attended the last class, on vals. Again, there were no fancy moves (which is a good thing), but rather some work on musicality and rhythm. We danced a little bit after that, but other then a couple of tandas with Kyla there was nothing out of the ordinary. We left the camp site around 5:30PM after having a bite to eat with a bunch of other people and we made it home around 10PM (no it didn't take that long to drive home, I had to stop at the grocery store).

So, did I enjoy my vacation? Sure, it was fun. I was expecting a lot more tango, but I did get a few good dances, hung out in Montreal, I got to use the tent again (after two years), met friends from Montreal and NY and made some new ones. Not bad for one week. And I got a really nice shirt from Montreal that goes perfectly with my new blue linen pants. Speaking of linen pants, I need to remember when I'm making the next pair to really re-enforce the waist band. When it's hot and humid linen seems to "grow" and one of these days I'll find my pants around my ankles at the end of a tanda. Sadly I no pictures from the first part of this trip because the card in my new compact camera crapped out on me... Grrrrrrrrr

But I have some pictures and I'll post them soon, so stay tuned.

Montreal - International Tango Festival (@Tango Libre) - Tuesday

2007-07-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

We met a friend from Boston for lunch and then hung out in the city for a while before we headed back to V's apartment to get ready for the milonga.

Since l'Academie has a new milonga on Tuesdays we decided to skip the festival milonga and go there instead. Also Caroline was going there so we figured it was worth checking out.

We got there at 8PM, and we were the only ones there for 30 minutes. I danced with Debbi, as the music was great. I don't know the DJs name but he did a great job. Caroline came in a bit later and she taped me and Debbi dancing.

After that I danced with Caroline a tanda and it went great. Her embrace improved tremendously since the last time we danced together and her following got a lot better as she is now much more calm and able to wait for the lead rather then anticipate it.

After 9:30 a few more people came in but it was mostly dead. There were a few good dancers in the room, so I had a chance to dance with them on a (mostly) empty floor which I really like. The first lady I danced with she's been dancing 16 years... While she didn't have perfect technique like some of the tango "Gods" I danced with in the past, she has a wonderful embrace and musicality and a confidence that I guess comes as years of dancing pass. I then danced with "L", another really good dancer and Debbi managed to grab that on tape. Watching the tape makes me wish I'd keep my back straiter and have a better extension as I step, but I guess I have to be ... gasp ... patient, I will eventually get there.

The lady who's been dancing for 16 year paid me a very nice compliment. She said something along the lines "It is such a pleasure dancing with you. After only a year and a half you learned to fuse with the music and your partner, which is the most important thing". She is french, which might explain the unusual choice of the verb (fuse), but I like it, I think I would like to be fused to the music and my partner. It seems like it's what should matter when dancing. I like compliments which are really meant. Too often people pay empty compliments and I think that practice just waters down the real ones. Which is why I never do that, if I pay a compliment to someone, a really mean exactly what I say. Because if you describe an OK dance as "fantastic" or "amazing", how would one be able to describe a really amazing one? "Oh, this was super-duper-fantastico-amazingly-great" ? So, if I say "fantastic" I mean, surprisingly to many, "fantastic".

Despite the good dances I had, the place was practically dead, so we jumped on the bike and went to the festival milonga, where we arrived around 11:30PM, just in time for the live music ... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... Se while that played, we chatted with some people, and it seems we are not alone in our opinion of the festival.

Once the live music was over and Michel started Djing again, I went and asked "D". We never danced before even though I asked her, as it seemed like it was always bad timing. She is fun to dance with and we danced probably 3 tandas. I then danced with a couple of other dancers I danced with before, and while it was not mind blowing, it was pleasant and fun. The milonga went until 2:15 which was fine, as I don't think I would've lasted much longer. There were a couple of other dancers in the room I would've liked to dance with, but they seemed to exclusively dance with one person so I didn't have the opportunity.

I'd say that Tuesday was probably the best day so far.

Montreal - International Tango Festival (@Tango Libre) - Monday

2007-07-11T07:23:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure why we went there Monday, as we knew the DJ (same as Saturday) and we knew there was going to be live music (which I don't like). Monday was a complete bust, except for dancing with Debbi at the beginning of the evening on an empty floor. When I say empty, it's not just a figure of speech. We danced for at least 20 minutes alone on the floor, with everyone else sitting down. Don't know why, didn't care. I like empty floors. A few tandas felt really good, particularly a milonga one (milonga still being my nemesis).

With one exception, I have not danced with anyone else. While there were a few people there I would've liked to dance with, the music was atrocious. I thought Saturday was the worst music selection one could hear. Apparently I was wrong.

The one exception was Soledad, one of the Argentine instructors with whom I danced one song. After the performances they were on their way out, but a waltz was playing and Soledad had restless feet, she looked like she wanted to dance. All the other instructors were heading for the door, but I went for it anyway. I walked up to her and said something along the lines of "Oh, are you leaving already? Would you care to dance one song before you go?". So off we went. Not surprisingly she is a fantastic dancer. Light but steady presence, warm embrace, amazing balance and musicality.

Crap, all pictures are gone ...

2007-07-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a new compact camera, something to keep in my bag all the time, when I don't feel like lugging around the SLR, and it's a great little camera. It does a great job in low light, which is why I got it.

But yesterday as I was downloading the pictures into my laptop, the computer froze and it corrupted the storage card. I may have lost all the pictures I took during this trip, which is such a bummer. If I manage to recover them, I'll post some here and on my website.

Montreal - International Tango Festival (@Tango Libre) - Sunday

2007-07-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

In the afternoon we met with fellow blogger Caroline, and we hung out for a while, had a great Lebanese lunch and sat down on the grass in a park and chatted. That was a pleasant low key afternoon.

After the experience we've had Saturday, we went to the place where the festival milonga was going to take place, wary of what we would find. The milonga was going to take place in a room in the Old Port which has glass walls on two sides, it looked pretty cool. We got there at about 8PM and looking at the long line formed at the entrance I realized I did not recognize anyone. It seemed the live music with Beba Pugliese attracted a lot of people who are not avid tango dancers. Also, the Claude was DJing again (see my prior post) and the room did not seem large enough to allow such a large inexperienced crowd to dance comfortably. We heard there was going to be over an hour of performances and since the admission price was $35 we felt it was not worth taking a chance, so we went to L'Academie instead.

L-Academie was pretty empty, presumably most people went to the festival, which I later learned it was not exactly true. While the festival milonga was packed, I was told that a lot of regulars were in neither place. What I think happens in these cases, people assume everyone is going to the festival milonga, and if they feel like that is not worth going to, they just stay home or do ... gasp ... non-tango activities.

But despite being a slow night, I had a good time. Aside from Debbi, I danced with a few people. "L", a french woman who moved to Montreal because she liked the people here better then her compatriots, she is a good dancer. I danced with her before when I came to Montreal for the Neo-Tango festival, and when we came for my birthday, and back then she was very tense and her dancing suffered. But Sunday she was not nervous and it made such a great difference. It was a lovely couple of tandas.

I danced with "I", a girl I never danced with before, she is a lot of fun, highly musical, great embrace and while she did anticipate the movement a bit, the qualities she has certainly made up for that. "M", a woman who was obviously somehow connected with the milonga as she seemed to know everyone, was probably the best dance of the night technique wise, but somehow not the most fun, as she didn't seem like she was really enjoying herself much. But she did stay for 3 tandas, so maybe she was having an off night. "E" was there, a girl I met at the Neo-tango festival when she asked me to dance, while she doesn't have the best technique out there (not that she is not bad, mind you) she is fun to dance with in great part because it's really obvious she enjoys it a lot and she doesn't tense up when something goes wrong, and that is so important it makes up for any other issues.

Montreal - International Tango Festival (@Tango Libre) - Saturday

2007-07-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

I was very excited and could not wait to come spend a week in Montreal, attending what I was hoping to be an exciting tango festival in a city both myself and Debbi loves. Saturday we got here around 5PM and after meeting with my friend V who graciously offered us his apartment to stay we got ready and went to the Saturday milonga.

The DJ was supposed to be Michel Auzat (according to the festival website), who is one of the best DJs I've heard yet. So I was kind of confused when I saw another guy DJing. Those of you who know me or those who read some of my other posts, know that the music selection is very important to me and I can't dance on music I don't like. Claude Paris (he appears to be the resident DJ at Tango Libre), who DJed all the festival milongas so far (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) has a soft spot for dramatic music (Piazzolla, Pugliese) and another for obscure orchestras and songs. Most of the music he played sounded to me like movie soundtracks. I didn't recognize more then half the music and I could swear I did not hear one DiSarli or Biagi. So, in conclusion, I have to say that Claude is at this point the absolute least favorite DJ I've heard so far. Ever. I will do my best to avoid any event he DJs, as it was incredibly frustrating.

As far as dancing, I had a few good dances (as good as could make them considering the music), some with people I knew from my prior visits, some new. One in particular needs to be mentioned, X from Ithaca, NY. After dancing a couple of songs I found out she was just dancing for 6 months. Perfect embrace and balance, great following skills and musicality. Quite amazing for someone dancing for only 6 months.

Weekend New York trip (long)

2007-06-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

As I had some bureaucracy to fight at the Romanian embassy in NY, I took Friday and Monday off, the plan being to take care of business Friday and/or Monday and use the rest of the time to hang out in NY and of course tango! To save some cash, I got a room in Stamford, which I thought it was 20 miles north of NY on I95. With Priceline.com I got it at a Holiday Inn for $60 a night, which was a pretty good deal. Stamford, as it later turned out, it's actually about 40 miles north of midtown so next time I'll have to pay more attention to the distances ... The other idea I had was that I would trailer the motorcycle to the hotel, and take the bike to the city, as a bike is much easier to park. Assuming there would be parking at the hotel. Which there wasn't (well, there was PAID parking, but not for a car with a trailer attached). Something else I should ask in the future so I won't have to move the car around at 3AM while trespassing ...

Friday - the trip to NY

We (me and Debbi) left the house Friday around 10AM (to avoid rush hour) and we were hoping to hit Stamford by 2AM and then head to town for the afternoon milonga which starts at 4:30. Due to construction and heavy traffic it took us 6 hours to get to the hotel, so we decided to skip the afternoon milonga and just chill a bit and head into town early enough to have dinner and hang out a bit before the milonga. We left on the motorcycle around 7PM thinking we'd get into the city by 7:45 or so. Not so fast... It took us 2 hours to make the 40 miles to the city. Riding a motorcycle in stop and go traffic for two hours is not exactly that much fun. For those who are not aware, motorcycles are manual transmissions, and the clutch is operated by the left hand. When one goes in stop and go traffic, the clutch is basically used continuously. By the end of the two hour trip, I could not feel my hand anymore... On the up side, a few more of these trips and I'll be able to crush rocks with my bare left hand, who knows when that might get ... handy. Hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Friday - the milonga @ the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant

We made to the restaurant by 9:20PM, and there was still a pre-milonga class going on, so we ordered food, taking the opportunity to check out the local talent. I saw a few women in the room I wanted to dance with, but they were virtually impossible to approach as they were in high demand and when they were not dancing, they were engaged in what appeared to be intimate conversations which I feel are rude to interrupt. They didn't appeared to be interested in dancing outside of their circle so I didn't even try. Other then Debbi, I only danced with a couple of women, one of them being C, whom I met at the Boston tango festival where she performed with one of the argentine instructors. She is a lovely dancer and I enjoyed every minute of the 2 (or maybe 3) tandas I danced with her. It turns out she doesn't dance socially much, for various reasons, which I think it's a shame. So I "made" her promise she'd go out more often ;-) While I certainly don't feel (anymore) like I have to dance every tanda, it was quite disappointing to dance so little, but it was (mostly) my own choice so I can't really complain.

Saturday - bike adventures

We got up late and headed into town around 3PM, thinking we'll have time to hang out before the Central Park Milonga which starts at 6PM. Good plan, but the bike broke down on the way there. So there I was on the side of the road taking the bike apart to track down what appeared to be an electrical problem. The first attempt to fix it didn't work, but the second time I was pretty sure I got it right and since it was 5PM already and we were still an hour away, I decided to take the chance and continue to ride to NY (as opposed to returning to the hotel to get the car). It turns out the issue was indeed fixed so we made it to Central Park a bit after 6PM.

Saturday - Central park milonga

It turns out Central Park is quite big and we didn't have the best directions, so it took us a while to track down the milonga, but we eventually heard the music and tracked it down. The dancing takes place in a little ronda with a statue of Shakespeare in the middle. The floor is concrete, so not exactly ideal, but it's not that terrible. Me and Debbi danced for the first 20-30 min or so and then we went to find new partners. A favorite follower of mine, R from NY was there and we danced together 3 or 4 tandas, and it was just as lovely as always. I also danced with someone new, N, she has a wonderful embrace and we had a lot of fun. The two hours that we had went by quickly and before we knew it, it was over.

Saturday - Lafayette milonga

In the evening we went to Lafayette milonga. I reviewed this milonga a while ago and nothing really changed. The level of dancing is much lower then all other milongas in NY, I actually only danced with Debbi, L, a follower from Boston who happened to be there and one tanda with a local which was OK, but nothing special. Interesting though, while I'd say that most dancers were between beginner & intermediate, the floor craft was decent. The milonga had live music with a duo, which sounded fine, but I didn't find it very inspiring to dance to.

Sunday - Sancha dance sneakers!

Over the last year I've seen scores of people talking about sancha dance sneakers and seen even more dancing in them, so since we knew there was a Sancha store in NY (8th ave & 53rd) we went there so now I'm the proud owner of one pair for about $40. And it turns out, they ARE very comfortable and great to dance tango in (just make sure you get the ones with hard soles, as they make ones with soft soles which are way to grippy for tango).

Sunday - Tango Porteno (Sea port) milonga

Now, this was the best milonga of this trip, and possibly the best I've been in NY ever. There were a few issues, the most important one being the floor, which is an old wooden deck, complete with cracks, splinters, warped planks, etc. I was in sneakers and sometime had a hard time, but some of the women were wearing high heels and I have no idea how they do it... They are my heroes! ;-) The other issue is that the dancing area is not delimited, so unlike a traditional milonga, where if you can keep your follower on the outside of the outer loop you can keep her safe, in this case it was not true, as there were bystanders, bicycles, kids running, etc. I don't know if that would be allowed by whoever owns the area, but it would be ideal if the dance area was cordoned off, which would keep both dancers safe from pedestrians and keep the pedestrians safe from being stabbed by a rogue boleo...

But there were scores of great dancers, and I got to dance with a few of my favorite NY dancers and even find new favorites. T was there and we danced several tandas which were a lot of fun. Sadly that happened at the height of the evening when it was the most crowded, so it was not nearly as fun as it could've been. Same with R, which I was so glad to see, as she is so awesome to dance with and we both enjoy tremendously dancing with each other. I danced again with N, who I met at the Central Park and she was lots of fun. And I found a new favorite, D, from NY. She looked familiar but I could not remember where I knew her from, so I went to introduce myself and I was surprised to see that she knew my name. It turns out we met at Adam's party in the spring, though I can't remember if we danced together, I would guess we didn't, as I'm sure I would've remembered. It wasn't easy to get her as she was in high demand, one leader in particular (fantastic dancer according to Deb) monopolized her for over an hour. Grrrrrrrr ;) But we go to dance a few tandas toward the end of the evening, and it was certainly worth the wait. She has am amazing embrace and an elegance in movements that reminded me of Marika (my first "tango crush"). Looking forward to dance with her again, hopefully on a better surface.

Monday - Oops, embassy closed until late

Monday at around 10:30 we arrived at the (Romanian) embassy where I had some papers to get notarized just to find out they would not open until 4PM. The original plan was to leave the NY area around noon heading to Boston. Leaving right after the business was taken care of would've put us on the road at around 6PM, and that seemed like a bad time to get out of NY. So, we decided to stay later, and since we were there ;-), we decided to stop by at the monday's milonga, as it's unlikely I'll be in NY on a monday evening any time soon.

Monday - Luna milonga

The milonga starts at 9:30 and unlike Boston, there were quite a few people waiting to get in, so the floor got busy right away. The level of dancing was mixed, from good to beginners. I was quite tired as the night before I only slept 3 hours and since I was going to drive to Boston after the milonga I only danced with a few people with whom I danced before. N, was the woman I met at the Tango Nuevo Fest in Montreal who was only been dancing at that time for 8 months, yet she's fantastic (she's both fun and technically proficient, which is not a combination easy to come by). We danced for a long time, maybe 4 or even 5 tandas until she had to leave as she had to get up in the morning. We had a blast. L, which I danced with before at various events is also a great dancer, but I'm having trouble maintaining a comfortable embrace for some reason, it could be height related.

Monday night - the drive home

One advantage of driving during the night is the complete lack of traffic. I set the car on cruise control at 75mph and that was that. About 2/3 of the way I had to pull over for a power nap. After about an hour I woke up, Deb woke up and we made the rest of the distance without incidents.

Conclusion

I love NY.

More conclusions :-)

Taking the bike on a trailer to have to buzz around in the city was a good idea, but we had to deal with carrying the jackets around as I had no way to secure it. Next time I'll bring a cable lock to be able to secure them to the bike. Also, I'll have to make sure that wherever we spend the night there is space to park a car with a trailer attached. Alternatively, I could try to fold the trailer and try to squeeze it in the same parking spot as the car, but I'll have to find a way to secure it to the car (the cable lock maybe?).

As far a tango goes, NY is a much bigger scene then Boston and I've seen lots of people I would've liked to dance with but had no time or opportunity to ask. Looking forward to going again.

Boston tango festival - Day 4 & 5

2007-06-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

On the last two days nothing happened that was worth mentioning. Saturday at the 1st milonga, from 9PM to 1AM, I only danced with Deb a few tandas and then two more tandas with two different women. It was by choice, while the live music was much better for dancing then the one on Friday, it didn't inspire me much. And the DJed music selection was totally uninspiring. The 2nd milonga, the "all night" one, from 1AM to 4:30AM was just as uneventful. The music selection was weird to say the least (each traditional tanda was followed by a two song alternative set) and after dancing with Deb at the beginning, I only danced a couple of tandas. All in all, it was a lame Saturday.

Sunday wasn't much better. While there was much more space on the dance floor, the music selection was odd (same DJ as Saturday), attendance was low, and I think I danced maybe 5 tandas all together, 3 of them with Debbi.

The Sunday afternoon practica was more fun then all the 3 festival milongas combined.

I will post soon a review of the festival on my Milonga review site.

Boston tango festival - Day 3

2007-06-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

I decided I will soon post a review of the festival on my Milonga review site, so I'm only going to write now about my dances, nothing else.

Friday I danced just a little bit, most of the dances were rather unremarkable with a couple of exceptions. As usual I started the evening dancing with Debbi, which sets the bar pretty high. I danced with Tine, the DJ from NY, and she was lovely as usual, but for whatever reason we could not connect this time (dancing on live music, didn't help). I also danced with a woman I haven't been dancing for a long time, as she dropped out of tango to concentrate on studies. I used to love to dance with her but this time it just didn't work.

Towards the end of the evening I was taking pictures, as the music was rather uninspiring, when I noticed a woman who seemed somewhat familiar, sitting down rather bored. I was pretty sure she was a good dancer, even though I could not place her, and as I was trying to remember where did I see her, a vals tanda started. I figured what the hell, vals is a pretty sure bet, even when dancing with people I'm not quite compatible with. So I catch her eye, she smiles, I ask and off we go. From the first few measures it became obvious she was a really good dancer and it got better and better as we were adjusting to each other. As we were talking between the 2nd and third song I learned she grew up (in NJ) with tango music as her father was/is a (tango?) musician and she started to dance tango more seriously in 1995... When the vals tanda ended she didn't seem to be in any hurry to go anywhere, so we talked through the cortina and continued to dance on the next tanda. The music was inspiring, I had a great time and she seemed to enjoy it as well. When the tango tanda ended, I was thrilled to see that she was up for another one, when I realized the song played was "La Cumparsita". I looked at the watch, sure enough it was almost 1AM. I excused myself, as I was sure Debbi was waiting for us to have the last dance of the evening together. After the last song, as we were changing shoes, I realized who she was. She is the partner of one of the argentine instructors and she seemed familiar because I've seen her perform at the opening milonga on Wednesday...

Boston tango festival - Day 2

2007-06-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

Thursday was the second milonga, at the same space. It was pretty much the same as the day before, it just seemed like there were less people, which I find odd. Maybe a lot of people came Wednesday to see the performances. Same horrifying lack of floor craft (Deb got hit in the head by one of the local "dancers", that guy is a menace on the dance floor, yet he thinks he's fantastic. He actually TEACHES tango and he gets gigs to showcase tango at weddings like you can see by following this link. I shudder at the thought of people watching him and thinking that is what tango is.), same light setup and once again the milonga ended at midnight. Sigh ...

Speaking of performances. It's rare I enjoy watching a performance more then watching the same people dancing socially. That's because in most cases, it seems like the dancers feel they have to do amazing athletic things in a performance, and the whole thing looks like a circus act.

I found it weird that argentine dancers would dance (at least during performances) almost exclusively in open embrace. I thought they are supposed to prize the connection and intimacy of the dance beyond anything else.

I feel that we might have a vicious circle going. The performers probably feel like they would not be as entertaining if they didn't go overboard with the athletics, so they keep doing it, and at the same time they make people think this is what tango is all about, so they sort of create the "monsters" who want them to execute the "dancing with the stars" performances. It's quite a shame I think.

I danced with one of the argentine instructors at the end of the night, on the last two songs (two versions of the "La Cumparsita"). On the first song she felt a little stiff and mechanical, like she was bracing for disaster ;), so I kept it simple and stayed in open embrace. On the second song, I switched to close and by the second half I felt we were really dancing (as in, she was participating in the dance rather then just tentatively going along for the ride). I wish it wasn't the end of the night, as I would need a few more dances to figure out if I could create a really good connection with her. Please note that I'm not questioning her proficiency in the technical aspects of the dance, I'm talking about how well we managed to connect with each other and the "chemistry" of the dance. It was too little to figure it out. Maybe I'll get another shot at it later.

Of course dancing what seemed to be the last dance of the evening with somebody else got me in trouble as Debbi likes to end the evening dancing with me, so she excused herself to the person she was dancing with only to sit down alone for the last song. Ouch. In my defense, I looked for her when the first "La Cumparsita" started and she was dancing with Miles, so I went to chat with the DJ and sort of ran into the teacher and without thinking it through, I asked her for a dance. Since I asked her halfway through the song, I felt it would've been really rude to excuse myself after just half a song, so I felt I had to continue.

When I got back to the table Deb was looking really disappointed, so not wanting to leave things as they were, I grabbed my cell phone, which among other things it's an mp3 player, quickly found "Re, Fa, Si" (Biagi), put the phone on speaker and asked Deb for the last dance of the night. So off we went, with the phone kept really close to our ears and had our last song of the night. Miles took pictures and some video of this dance which you can see below. So that's how I managed to dug myself out of the hole ;)

Boston tango festival - Day 1

2007-06-14T09:48:00.001-07:00

Last night was the opening night at the Zero Arrow theater in Cambridge. It's a nice space but there are some things that I could live without. The main room is pitch black. And I mean walls, ceiling, I think even the floor. I was the photographer and when I take pictures in a dark room I bounce the light off walls and/or ceiling to make it look more natural. Well, that will not work with matte black walls & ceilings. To make it worse, they had variable red/blue lighting, so good luck trying to get pictures with good colors. As such, nearly all the pictures look like in a B category Sci-Fi movie. Oh well.

Even if I didn't have to take pictures, the room was way too dark, trying to see people at the tables to find someone to dance from across the room was impossible. So one had to walk (on the dance floor, as there was no other way around) around the room to find partners. I wish there was a corridor created between the tables so "pedestrians" can go around the room without having to walk on the dance floor. I'll mention it to the organizers tonight along with the lighting suggestions.

On a good note, the music was quite good. Tine DJed and she did a great job selecting music for the crowd, the dance floor was packed at all times. She is also a great dancer, the tanda we danced together was one of the best on the night. I however was not at my best. The complete lack of floor craft on the dance floor is screwing up my dance big time as I get stressed out about bumping into people of being bumped in. Unfortunately, I have not been to any milongas where the floor craft was great, so this is hardly an issue specific to this event.

I haven't danced much, for the reasons mentioned above. Maybe today... There were a few people in the room I've danced with months ago and I would've liked to dance with again, but I had no time. I wish milongas in Boston were open later, having to go home at midnight is a bit of a bummer.

38th birthday in Montreal

2007-06-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

Weekend in Montreal

Debbi took me to Montreal for the weekend as a birthday gift. I love that city and every time I go there I wish I had more time. We met a fellow blogger, Caroline, and we had a great time chatting and going to milongas together. Yes, milongas. You didn't think I was going to be in Montreal and not dance, did you? That'd be just silly...

We made to the Royal Tango milonga Saturday night. I haven't danced much as it was crowded and the floor craft was marginal at best. Also with just a few notable exceptions, the level of dance was somewhat mediocre. I was told it gets much better after midnight (and the only other time I've been there it was better later), but we left early as Debbi wasn't feeling well.

Sunday was a true tango marathon. We started it at 3PM with the practica at Studio Tango then went to the Tangueria milonga where we made it around 7:30 and then we left around 10:30 to make to "L'Academie" where we closed the place at 2AM.

I'll post some reviews of there venues on my milonga review site later, so I won't go into details now. I'll just write about some of the highlights.

At the Studio Tango supervised practica I danced with Mireille for a little bit, as she was "on the clock" (she was the supervising teacher). I saw her at the milonga the day before, but we left before I had a chance to introduce myself. So I did at the practica. She is a dream to dance with. Unfortunately because the practica was crowded and the movements of the dancers were a textbook Brownian motion, I spent a lot of energy in trying to protect her (and myself) from being crashed into, so that made it somewhat difficult to truly enjoy the experience, but one thing was clear, she is awesome. She masters the "moving like moving through molasses" technique and I look forward to dance with her again in a more favorable setting.

At the Tangueria milonga I had the chance to dance with Laura and she was a blast to dance with. I wish I had the chance to dance with her on some music I really like, instead of Pugliese. Pugliese can be fun to dance to, but I have to be in the right mood, it's a difficult music to dance to and trying to make it interesting the first time you dance with someone can be challenging. Debbi took video of me dancing with her, here are a few fragments. Apparently I picked up this funny habit of dancing with my mouth open, which makes me look like a drooling idiot (which I'm not ... most of the time). I'm thinking I should stop doing that ...

The next stop was L'Academie. And it turns out that that's where all the great dancers were. Marika was there (my first "tango crush" as Debbi calls her) and we danced a couple of tandas. She was just as lovely as always, both as a person and as a dancer. She has this amazing warm embrace that can just make you melt. It just occurred to me, I think she should teach a workshop on embrace, a lot of people would benefit greatly if they learned hers. Or maybe she does that already as quite a few dancers in Montreal have a very pleasant embrace.

A while ago, the second time I was in Montreal, the first time I went with Debbi, at the L'Academie milonga we saw a man and a woman dancing that caught our attention. He is very protective about his partners, at times keeping his arms around her like a shield and he sings as he dances. He is obviously a very good dancer. She had this totally relaxed expression on her face, the "tango bliss" face. Last night I saw her sitting down and went and asked her for a dance. She is a great dancer (she is been dancing for 8 years) and we danced for a while, maybe two and a half tandas (there were no cortinas played at this milonga and it was a bit disconcerting) until a milonga set came along. She asked if I'd like to dance the milonga set, and I would've loved to continue dancing with her, but a milonga set was more then I could handle after dancing the whole day.

Last but not least, I obviously danced a lot with Debbi, she is (quickly) becoming a great dancer. While she's only been dancing since January, she is quite often one of the best dancers in the room. Her embrace, presence and following is often praised by her dance partners and she is quickly improving on the other skills that make someone a great follower (in my opinion of course).

I had a great time, thank you Deb, you're awesome.

Do you like it here in US?

2007-06-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

When they find out I'm a foreigner many people ask me this question. When I don't look too enthusiastic about living here they ask me why and I usually have a hard time giving an articulated answer. But I was reading a blog written by a couple who went to live in Argentina for 6 months or so, and here is what they had to say about the difference between US and Argentina. That explains perfectly what bugs me about living in US.

"In the United States, there is always someone, something, some group, some law who will tell you what is best for you. In Argentina, the people take responsibility for their own lives. In the USA, people give away their responsibility in the name of safety and security. Here, in Argentina, they fight to keep it and are willing to take the consequences.

In the USA of my childhood, we had that. We lost it. Or we gave it away. We got lazy and complacent. We are no longer responsible for anything. We are a culture of victims. Things happen TO us. We are passive and reactive.

Argentinos live on the edge. They pay their money and they take their chances. In the USA, we take our chances only if it’s someone else’s money."

The original post is here.

How to Play (Live) Tango Music for Dancers by Bob Barnes

2007-06-01T05:03:00.000-07:00

There was quite a firestorm of emotions on the tango-l list lately about live music for tango dancing, and in my opinion this post was one of the most useful post ever posted on this subject. If you know musicians who play (or are thinking of playing) tango for dancing, have them read it! :

Here is the link

Providence Alternative Tango Fest - A tanda with fireworks

2007-05-31T08:42:00.000-07:00

Most of the dances I had at this festival were way above average, but some were simply amazing. Sunday, at the beginning of the milonga I was chatting with Shorey Myers (who was DJing that evening) as she was picking the music. She is selecting music as she goes, so I knew it was unlikely I was going to have a chance to dance with her once the milonga gets going, as she is very concentrated on the music selection and she never dances much when she's "on the clock". That seems to work, as I'm a great fan of her DJing (and her dancing and her teaching ...), can you tell I have a "tango crush"? ;)

So I asked her if she wanted to dance a tanda until it gets too crazy. I personally love to have the entire dance floor to myself, my navigation needs work and having to deal with that takes away from my ability to listen to the music. Shorey selected some DiSarli music (one of her favorite) and off we went. Debbi managed to grab a few shots and the one on the left is one of them.

That tanda was possibly the most fun I've had since I started tango. Half way through it, very in tune with the energy of the dance at that time, fireworks started outside (in celebration of Memorial Day) and they kept going for the remainder of the tanda. By the end of the tanda I was pretty much high on endorphins, it was so awesome. We got back to her DJ station as she had to pick the music for the next tanda, and as she's doing that she says "do you want to do another one?" ... Oh, I don't kn... OF COURSE SILLY! ;-) And off we went again, and the 2nd one was just as fun, if not even better.

I had the privilege to dance with Shorey a few times before, and it was always fantastic, but these two tandas were simply amazing. It was the first day I was feeling better after dealing with a sinusitis for the last few days, and I was in a great mood to start with. I began the evening by dancing with Debbi, and we had a blast, which probably set me up for the dances with Shorey. What makes Shorey such an amazing dancer (in my opinion), is that she is responding to the lead in a manner consistent with the feel of the lead. If I lead an energetic move, not only she moves like that, but she adds more energy, at all the right moments. When, after a dynamic section, I settle down in the embrace to "reset" for the next musical phrase, not only she's mirroring that, but she somehow makes it even deeper. She manages to suggest pauses and dynamic changes in such a way and with such timing that it doesn't throw me off in my leading. She is one of the very few people I danced with who I feel a have a "conversation" while dancing. I'm pretty sure she has to work extra to allow me to "hear" things that advanced dancers pick up on right away, and even with all that extra work, I miss a lot of her contributions, but I pick up on some, and it feels amazing.

Having the best ever dance at the beginning of a milonga is a mixed blessing. It certainly puts one in a great mood, but it almost made me to want to go home, as it would be unlikely to get any better then that. It didn't, and chances are, it will be a while until I'll top that one, but I still had some amazing dances that night and I'll write about those later.

Providence Alternative Tango Fest - The "official" photographer

2007-05-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

I was the "official" photographer for this festival, which was fun. Photography is a passion, which was overtaken by tango in the last year, but it's now making a comeback. I've taken over 600 pictures and it will take me a bit to go through all of them, weed out the bad shots, fix what can be fixed, crop, resize, adjust colors & levels (so if you are waiting to see the pictures, please be patient). I also took video of the performances (and a little video of the events) and will post that soon as well

For this festival I implemented an idea I had for a while, I setup a projector hooked up to my laptop, and once in a while I'd download the pictures from the camera in the laptop and have the projector display on a wall a slide show of the pictures that were taken (you can see the projection on the back wall in the picture). People seemed to enjoy checking out the pictures, even though they were in their "raw", unedited form (all "duds" included : like badly focused, overexposed, underexposed, etc).

The light levels are very low at these events so I brought two radio remote controlled strobes. Sadly one of them went bad almost right away, but I use the other one which in "cooperation" with my on camera strobe worked pretty well. If I decide to try to make a business from taking pictures at these type of events, I'll probably have to acquire a lot more remote controlled lights. Maybe 5 or 6.

The great unknown is the demand for pictures and people's willingness to pay for them. Would people be interested in buying prints? Or maybe hi resolution files? It's unlikely one would be able to make a living with this, but if I could cover some of my tango expenses, that would be nice. Maybe I should make a poll and see what people think about a service like this.

"Don't work too hard; it's bad for you" ...

2007-05-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

Great article in my opinion :

Don't work too hard; it's bad for you

Tango music survey - ta da!!!!

2007-05-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this survey for a while now and with the help of many people from the tango community, it finally got to a form where I'm (almost) happy with. Below the link for the survey, there is a link for the live report. I will add more reports in the future so it would probably be useful to bookmark this blog entry. The best way to keep up to date with any development is to subscribe to the "RSS feed" for comments (if you use a Feed reader, if you don't know what that is, on the left side of the page there is more info).

Please email the link to this post to anyone you know who is a tango dancer, the more responses we collect, the more meaningful the survey becomes.

Click here to take the survey.

Click here to access the live summary report. Please be advised that some of the bar graphs for the matrix responses are not relevant, and I couldn't figure out how to take them out. Always use the counts to draw your own conclusions. Once I get relevant participation I will start publishing my own reports so stay tuned.

Click here to access the live text report.

I would like to thank everyone that helped me putting this together and I would like to thank in advance everyone that will take the time to complete the survey.

Automobiles as a metaphor for followers...

2007-05-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

There is person in the tango community who uses automobiles as a metaphor to refer to women/followers. By the choice of brand/model of the cars this person is choosing, it is obvious he means this as a compliment, yet I can't help but cringe every time I read one of these posts. While the cars mentioned are marvelous pieces of technology, often of beautiful design, they are still a big chunk of metal that is 100% reactive. As in, they don't do anything unless the driver initiates it (well, one would hope they don't, otherwise whoever drives it it's screwed, and not in a good way).

To me, if I was a follower, especially if I was an awesome dancer, being compared to a car, even one that costs a quarter of a million USD, it would be almost an insult. I am somewhat curios to hear from women how do they feel when (as tango dancers) they are compared with automobiles.

Can everyone please ...

2007-05-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

... forward this link to any musician who plays tango at milongas? Pretty please?

http://totango.net/livemusic.html

Neo-tango music reviews by TJ Nelson

2007-05-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

See this link : http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20060421211004852

Photography: how it all started ...

2007-05-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

A few people asked me recently how/why I started in photography, tango or motorcycles, so I figured it would be fun to write about that, given the subtitle of my blog ...

This post is about Photography, I will write about motorcycles and tango in other posts.

It was the spring of 2000 and I was looking for a job as the company I was working for was ... "taking water" and was very likely to go under (which it did, shortly after I left). I knew it was likely I was going to leave Florida and I wanted to experience some "tropical" fun while I was still there.

I took a week of and headed to the "Keys", the long sable of islands connected by RT1/US1, that goes all the way to Key West, the home of "Mile 0" on RT-1/US1. The second day I was there I decided to try "Coral reef diving". It's a full day venture, first you get a crash course in diving in a pool, then you get on a boat, head to a coral reef and spend an hour or so under water. It was quite exhilarating to see a shark 20 feet away ... (it was one of the small sharks, not known to attack people), but ... I learned that AFTER I saw it ...

Anyway, before I got to the boat, I went ahead and purchased two of those one time use underwater cameras. When I was growing up I saw countless episodes of the Jacques-Yves Cousteau underwater documentaries and was looking forward to take pictures of that amazing colorful underwater life. Can you spell "naive"?

So, I did, take many pictures while diving, if I remember correctly I used two rolls of film (for the younger crowd, film is something that was used in cameras before the time of digital...), 36 pictures on each roll. As a person with no special interest in photography, taking 70 pictures in one hour was virtually unheard off (Of course, now I have cards that hold 207 hi-res pictures, I have 6 cards and I still have to take my laptop with me to unload the pictures if I go for more then one day trip...)

So, I have a blast during the dive, got a little sick on the boat ride back and rushed to the "one hour" lab to get the pictures developed. I paced in front of the store until they were ready and I opened the envelope expecting to find those amazing colorful shots that you see in magazines (in retrospect that sounds really silly). What I got instead was a bunch of blurry, grainy, blue tinted pictures, on 75% of them not even been able to tell what the hell I was looking at. To say I was disappointed was the understatement of the year. I went back to the store and showed them the pictures and they looked at me and said something along the lines of "uhh, what exactly were you expecting out of a fleshless $8 camera?" ...

Hmm, well, determined to get some better pictures on my next "adventure" which was snorkeling in the coral reef, I went to the local camera store and rented an underwater camera. That was a $200 camera (to me that seemed a huge amount of money to pay for a camera, now my cheapest lens cost me 3 times that much...) so it had to be great, right? Well, while snorkeling in the coral reef is something everyone should try in their lifetime (unlike diving where you can hurt your ears if you're doing it wrong, not to mention decompression side effects if not done properly, snorkeling is pretty safe), the pictures came out just as crappy (well, a bit better, but not by much).

I went back to the camera store and complained about the camera being defective or something. It was then, when the guy in the store (I think he was the owner and a photographer himself) looked at me for a bit, picked up a book from behind the counter, opened it to a specific spot and invited me to sit down on a sofa he had in the store and read. It was a chapter on underwater photography. After reading that chapter I found another one that was interesting, and then another. I ended up spending a few hours in the store going over the entire book. When I got back home I bought a similar book, then another. Then I made my first "big" purchase, I got a N80 Nikon SLR and from there on ... well, that was the beginning.

I never got the chance to take pictures underwater since, but I have no doubt it will happen again someday.

The guy could've said "The camera is fine, to take really good pictures underwater one needs thousand dollars worth of equipment", and if he did, my interest in photography would've never been initiated. Is there a moral to this story? I think so, but I'll let you find it.

Rave: dancing on alternative ...

2007-05-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

If you read any 4 posts in my blog you're likely to run into at least one rant about alternative music. How it's boring, predictable, blah, blah, blah ... Last night I went to a practica and one of my favorite followers, R was there. She was busy practicing (as she will perform at an upcoming festival), so when I saw at some point she she was available I went and ask her to dance before I could her what music was coming, which is something I almost never do.

Can you guess what was the next tanda? Yeap, alternative! Rats...

So, we start moving and ... MAGIC! Dancing on that first song, I have no idea what it was, was amazing (for me, that is). The music was what you'd expect from an alternative song, predictable, steady beat, but it had an almost hypnotic feel to it and the connection was fantastic. R is extremely good at simulating "frictionless movement" (by that I mean that one could lead something (say a boleo) extremely slow, and it works just as it would work when it's done faster, when there is the help of inertia) and she also has great balance, it was so much fun to lead some things that are normally done on a single beat, much MUCH slower, like wraps and boleos, colgadas, etc.

I lost that magic after the first song and while we danced a couple of tandas, the second being traditional tango, the first song was by far the most fun.

So, I guess dancing on anything can be fantastic, given the right partner (and mojo, if it's one of those days when my mojo is MIA, the best partner in the world is not going to make a difference).

As crazy as it may seem, those 3 minutes made the one hour round trip to get there worthwhile... For those of you who are not dancing tango, watch out, if you start, you may end up like this ...

P.S. BTW, the title was just for the shock value, in case it was not clear, the rave here was for the dance with R, not for the alternative song ;-)

Guerrilla milonga (pics)

2007-05-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Jacob organized another "Guerrilla milonga" in Porter Sq. That is an unsanctioned event which goes until we get kicked out and then we move to the "backup" location. This time we had it outdoors in the Porter Sq in front of the ice cream shop. People would stop, look, ask questions : "Why are you doing this?", "What is this?", etc.

I took some pictures, you can see them here :

http://picasaweb.google.com/sorinvarzaru/GuerillaMilonga

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 3 - "Closing" Milonga

2007-05-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

This was in my opinion the best miloga of the whole festival and I certainly had the most fun, probably the most fun I had at any milonga to date.

After starting the evening on such a high note by dancing with Mila, I had my "mojo" on for most of the night and as such, I had a great time.

I've danced with way too many people to mention them all, and I'll only mention some of the highlights.

But before I get to that, it just occurred to me that I did not have a bad dance the entire time I was in Montreal. Actually with the exception of one tanda, which I would say it was an average experience, all the other ranged from good to fantastic.

Back to the highlights of the evening (they are in a relative chronological order).

I was chatting with this woman from NY (let's call her NL), as we were waiting for some music I liked (while most of the music was traditional, there were some neo-tango/electronica tandas when I took the opportunity to rest) so we can dance. She asked me, and that was one of the most elegant (not to mention virtually "risk" free) way a woman could ask a man she doesn't know for a dance. It was something along the lines of (and I'm heavily paraphrasing) "I saw you dance and I would like to dance with you, when you're free, come find me". A man would have to be a total asshole to respond with something unpleasant to such an elegant invite, even if he doesn't have any intention of dancing with her.

Anyway, she asked if I knew how long Mila was dancing tango for, saying she hopes it was a long time, as that would leave her time to "catch up". You know, if you see somebody that is been dancing for as long as you do and they are 10 times better, it tends to get depressing ... That sort of suggested she is been dancing for a while and she's not very satisfied with her progress.

Some music I like comes along and off we go. She is really good (balance, no anticipation, ability to follow dynamic changes, musicality, etc) so I tell her between tandas, asking how long she's been dancing anyway. 9 months. Uhh, well, that left me speechless for a second or so. I don't think NL has anything to be worried about her rate of progress... We danced for a few tandas and it was a delight.

Then I asked A to dance, a woman from San Francisco, I've watched her dance and she looks very peaceful. She is very light, very smooth movements, a pleasure to dance with.

I then danced with Ciko (Adam Hoopengardner's partner), they teach in NY and other places (BTW, I really like the way Adam dances milonga.) I did have the chance to dance with her before a couple of times, but each of those times was kind of bad timing (either I was tired, or I was uninspired, etc) so when she asked me to dance I was glad, as I was having a good night. And it showed, the first song of the tanda was amazing! If I could dance like that consistently, I'd be a happy man (for a while, anyway ... ;-). We danced for a couple of tandas, but that first song remained the best.

I danced a few tandas with E, from Montreal, she has a very warm embrace and she is an all around good dancer.

Also NT from NY, she is a very, very good dancer and we had a few great tandas, and I'm looking forward to my next trip to NY.

There were people I didn't mention, and it's not because it wasn't great, but mostly because there were no surprises, dancing with them was just as awesome I was expecting and I mentioned them in the past. Also towards the end of the night I was getting so tired, my memories are a bit blurry... ;-)

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 3 - Pre-milonga practica

2007-05-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

I got there right at 8PM when the "Practica" was scheduled to start. I said I was going to explain why I made sure to get there right at the beginning. There are a number of reasons, among them having the floor all to myself (or at least large chunks of it), or people being more relaxed as this is a practica, so they feel less pressure to be "perfect" (which incidentally, makes most people dancing better) but the most important reason is it's the best time to try to dance with some of the teachers. They are usually rested and more available.

After changing my shoes I was chatting with someone when Robin Tomas, one of the teachers came in with a coffee cup in one hand and a huge backpack, gave a hug to Mila (of Mila & Korey), another teacher and that hug somehow morphed into a dance that lasted about half a song (all with the coffee in his hand and the backpack still attached). That was rather sweet.

Once they stopped, Mila was tapping on the music as she was sort of sitting on the armrest of the couch, it seemed like that half song dance got her going and she looked like she wanted to dance. I was not going to miss that chance, so I jumped (literally) of the sofa and said "Can I take over?". As the word were coming out of my mouth, I felt kind of guilty putting her on the spot, I felt like I kind of forced her hand to accept, but it was too late to take it back.

She graciously agreed, we started to dance and it got better and better, she was doing all sorts of crazy footwork (practica, remeber?), and you could feel the energy of the dance going up and up. Two songs later, as the tanda ended, instead of saying thank you, she took her coat off, and off we went again. That was so much fun, there is no way I could ever translate that into words, so I won't.

So, one would say I started the evening with a high, and, honestly, for a second or so I entertained the thought of jumping in the car and head home, as it was unlikely to get any better than that, and it's fantastic when the evening ends on (such a) high note.

I didn't and I'm so glad I didn't.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 3 - The Alternative Milonga

2007-05-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

As some of you may remember, I'm not too fond of dancing on alternative music, so one may wonder, why go? Well, I was kind of getting bored hanging out in the city alone, and I figured I could just go and socialize, which is sometimes easier when you're not trying to dance.

This milonga, unlike the one the day before, was much better attended. Quite a few good dancers and they were a pleasure to watch, interestingly enough, this felt more like a practica, I don't know why, maybe because it was day time?

David Liu was the DJ and he played interesting music. I even danced a couple of tandas, which is something I hardly ever do. Oh, by interesting I mean good, just to eliminate any confusion ... ;)

It was kind of laid back, low key. I left early to have dinner so I can be at the last milonga of the festival at the opening. Why? I'll explain later.

Montreal Neo Tango Festival - day 2 - the "Midnight" milonga

2007-05-06T13:31:00.001-07:00

At about 1AM I made it to the "Midnight milonga" which was at the "Tango Fabrika" and was going to go until 6AM. Lots of people were already there and yay! Shorey was DJing. I was chatting with her while some tango electronica was playing. One of the guests turned around and said "Hey Shorey, when are you going to stop playing those cortinas?". Ouch, that was a harsh way to refer to tango electronica music. But funny! Soon thereafter Shorey started to play the music she usually plays, and I looked around for someone to dance with.

T was there with P, so once I changed my shoes, we danced until we coudn't move anymore, probably about 4 tandas. It was pretty crowded and for the first time it didn't stressed me as much as it usually does. Even T commented on my dancing being a lot more relaxed and complex despite the lack of space.

I found then E again and I asked her to dance. It was the last song of a tanda and the next tanda was the only tanda of non-classic tango I've heard that night (until 3AM when I left) so after trying one song (at which we both sucked) we decided to wait until the next classic tanda. Once we had a chance to dance on music I like, it was really fun, but my exhaustion was taking it's toll and I found myself many time falling into default moves and not being able to immerse in the music. By now the floor was packed so that didn't help. We danced a couple of tandas and then we stopped and planned to dance the next evening, when we'd be rested. Besides, she was wearing some shoes which were hurting her feet. Looking forward to tonight.

The last person I danced with, another E, let's call her E2, she was very fun to dance with, and very gracious to tolerate my exhaustion induce clumsiness. But at that time, it was 3AM and I was clearly done. I decide to head back to W's apartment and have some decent sleep, so Sunday evening I'll be able to keep my eyes open. At 3:30 I was sleeping.