Please take a moment to checkout the same Moments featering Teagan Geneviene on vocals that I posted last Mondy, but with a different video animated with a Shadow Dancer derived from Michele at My Inspired Life. Michele is into dancing, and working on a few different styles of dance, so when I was creating dancers to animate for the video, I made one with Michele in mind. While the AI created the dancer as a silhouette, the silhouette could be Michele. I described the choreography for the animation and it came out reasonably close to what I wanted.
Jake: “Whoa! Michele is a great dancer. How do I get attention for her?”
Spunku Renaissance? I go Medieval on your hiney Lay terms? “Kick Your Butt”
Well before dawn, protodawn, predawn
Dawn
The Moom on September 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21.
*I have no idea if either of the dancers is named Dakota, but their dancing and the Faire reminded me of the line “Dance, dance, Dokato dance…” in Dakota the Dancing Bear, Part II by David Allen Coe. It’s a great song, well worth a listen.
Roll on your back Stretch it out and go go go Make a silly face Square your eyes Let your bat fangs show It’s so easy as you can see So Come on come on And do the Loki-motion with me
Dancing days are done Done in by social distance Distance determined, solo spaces Spaces empty, filled, masked faces Faces covered vanquished smiles Smiles once lifted miens Miens covered informed eyes Eyes sad, lonely, longing Longing for closeness, movement Movement together, shuffled feet Feet stepping to the beat Beat goes on determined song Song inspires dance Dance today is deadly Deadly dancing Dancing days are done
A Sphingidae — Spinx Moth, AKA Hummingbird Hawk-Moth, was fluttering around feeding on our Purple Salvia with the bees and the butterflies. I made a short video of it and added one of our recordings of Caña for background music (I’m playing and Laurie’s dancing). The only sound on the original video was the wind.
While I was looking for the video file for Bite ‘Em on the Old Shin Bone last night to make a few updates to the video before posting it, I found a video of Laurie (Laura de Corrales) and me (El Cheo) performing Alegrías with Pablo Rodarte in a show we did in the Old Church in Corrales in the mid-1990s. Pablo danced Alegrías, Laura de Corrales is the Palmera, and El Cheo accompanied on guitar. I transferred the video from VHS to m4v several years ago, so the image quality is not very good. However, the sound is not too bad, considering.
In preparing for the show, Laurie and I practiced daily, I practiced with Pablo’s other students several days each week, but when it came to Pablo’s performance our practice together consisted of 15 minutes of Pablo doing a quick run-through of each part of the Alegías a week before the show. I simply had to follow all his leads during the performance.
Laurie and I both studied flamenco dance with Pablo, and I played flamenco guitar for many of his dance classes back in the 1990s before we moved to Spain for almost four years.
The Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales
Laura de Corrales dancing Tanguillos. El Cheo providing guitar accompaniment.
From LA to New York City Canada to the wall It’s like bad renditions Of movies like “The Fall”
So many lamentations News gives us all a fright Only sick and grave predictions We are in an awful plight
You can take your clothes off and stand naked in the rain But there’s no one to see you, now isn’t that a shame? Isn’t that a shame? Come on.
Inside can’t go out Livin’ la vida lockdown Makes us scream and shout Livin’ la vida lockdown We can’t earn our bread Enough to drive us loca Lockdowns wear us out Livin’ la vida lockdown (oh man!) Livin’ la vida lockdown (how sad!) Livin’ la vida lockdown
Woke up such a pity what a funky nasty spell We do your part to save some money But it’s like a living hell
Restless, climbing walls, all this waiting’s such a pain Now we’re all alone, and it’s driving us insane Yeah, we’ll never be the same
Inside can’t go out Livin’ la vida lockdown Makes us scream and shout Livin’ la vida lockdown We can’t earn our bread Enough to drive us loca Lockdowns wear us out Livin’ la vida lockdown (oh man!) Livin’ la vida lockdown (how sad!) Livin’ la vida lockdown
Ride a horse naked like Godiva in the rain But there’s no one to see you, isn’t that a shame? Isn’t that a shame? Come on.
Inside can’t go out Livin’ la vida lockdown Makes us scream and shout Livin’ la vida lockdown We can’t earn our bread Enough to drive us loca Lockdowns wear us out Livin’ la vida lockdown (Yeah!)
Livin’ la vida lockdown
Livin’ la vida lockdown Livin’ la vida lockdown Livin’ la vida lockdown
These murals above the display windows of the recently closed Maisel’s Indian Trading Post on Old Route 66 in Downtown Albuquerque. The murals depict the Navajo Yoi-bi-choi Dance and the Corn Dance.
Laurie dancing Alegrías in one the dresses she designed and sewed herself.
Sara Baras didn’t leave much of an impression in the fourth flamenco show. Belen Maya was much more interesting, but singer El Chocolate made the show in the 5th and last flamenco show we saw during our first three months in Madrid.
April 18, 1996
Flamenco
The fifth show included Chocolate and had a more modern dancer, Belen Maya, who was much more interesting that Sara Baras, but had too few moves and became quickly boring. Chocalate was excellent, but the guitarist who accompanied him and the other featured singer was totally boring. The other featured singer is not worth mentioning, as he did nothing extraordinary. What was extraordinary is that Fosforito and the young guitarist sitting in for Enrique del Malchor were special guests again. They seemed to have worked things out, because they were both great. A total change from Tuesday night. The guitarist had toned down his playing a bit, smoothed it out, and set himself to accompanying the cante. I hope he realizes that, his attention to the cante, and playing a slight more reserved, and in a more tastful manner, brought it home to the audience what a fine guitarist he is. It could be that the first guitaist was so boring that the new sound, lightning fast scales, and quick changes seemed fresh and fun in compairosn, where as Tuesday, he seemed busy and overpowering after Paco Cepero masterful playing. On Tuesday, Fosforito and his guitarist got a cool reception from the audience; but this night, they excited the audience, bringing gritos and applause for the great playing and emotionally, heart rendered words pouring forth from Fosforito’s pained, squinting face.
For the next several posts of Letters from Madrid…, I’m going to turn from music for a little bit and get into my observations and reactions to museums, architecture and planning, parks and open space, public restrooms, driving and tourists during our first three months in Madrid!
Off Center & Not Even 