A ton of new stuff has been going on since my last post. Since most of it has to do with Tango and Argentina, it'll be on neomilonguero.blogspot.com.

Hi everyone, it's been a while.

Seattle ROCKS! At least so far. For starters, everything is within 15 minutes of driving, and I've been able to dance every night of the week. I found a place which I hope to move into within the next few days, and it's 2 blocks from a lot of good restaurants on Broadway, and within a few blocks of Century Ballroom, and Dance Underground, thereby giving me walking access to about 3.5 tango events per week. The toughest part of living here so far is getting enough sleep.

I started running a light board for Nebunele Theatre in their production of The Secret Ruths of Island House, who I got in touch with via a friend I met at the Colorado Tango Festival. It's been interesting, and I've done well, especially considering this is my first time. He also introduced me to the woman who I am staying with. She happens to be a big Tango / Salsa / Swing teacher in Seattle, and it seems like being in touch with her has paid off. I'm now in touch with a tango trio which could use me as a singer perhaps, and I may run the light or sound at the tango cabaret. All in all, I've definately got plugged into the scene.

Work is going well, although I was a bit nervous to be doing real engineering work, after doing such high level work with subcontractors. I'm actually programming again! The 787 with all the wind tunnels and other facilities is a massive project, and pretty impressive. Well, I'm off to do my lighting gig!

Today I drive up to Seattle. I'll arrive Saturday night, in my overpacked little sports car, with my work starting next Friday, and a need to find a new place to live. If you've got tips for me, feel free to e-mail me or call!






Here are some random pictures of the Getty Center in LA, which I visited two weekends ago.

It's been a while, and a lot of things have changed quite a bit. I received two different job offers in Seattlem and accepted one, which means I'll be there starting July 7th. It's funny, every time I interview lately, I get an offer. Just over the phone, I got offers for both Seattle jobs. When I interviewed to see if I could do work as a representative of my R&D group, even though I wasn't super interested, I still got an offer. When I interviewed with 7 people to get into the R&D I got an offer. I think just being social helps a lot, soft skills really pay off.

Here's a random something that I won't be seeing anymore, a do it all performer at Long Beach:

















A couple of weeks back I saw Korey from Kansas City. Unfortunately Mila had problems with her Visa, but Mitra was able to substitute:
















Here's a pic of us getting dinner at Denver, Carrie Whipple on the left, Isaac Oboka center, and Nick Jones right:
















The festival was great, particularly the outdoor Milonga in Cheesman park. As of late, I've been getting dances with pretty much whoever I want. The highlight of that particular milonga was a nice tanda with Birgitta Winkler. Last December, I danced a bit with her, but her being a bit shorter (5'5" perhaps), made it tough to dance with, and I was leaning too much into her space. Compared with les than 6 months later, we had a very good series of dances. The weekend rocked, I enjoyed the workshops, and dancing till 7 AM on Monday was fun too.

Lately I have been thinking of the affect of constant practice in the area of personal development. I reccomend reading David Deida's works, it talks about the "yoga" (practice) of development through meditation, and other practices.

Well, where ther are a ton of different things that I could talk about, I'll leave it at that for now. Lots of exciting changes, and the possibility of singing at a tango cabaret in Seattle might also be fun.

Hey ladies, this ever happen to you?

Note, not for the faint of heart!

I met one of the main characters from Circe du Soleil: Ka, when I was out dancing Salsa Tuesday night. Here's a pic:


















Kleber Berto happened to be on vacation for a week, since Ka was on break in Las Vegas, and I met him through a Brazilian ballerina that I know. He's only 23 and making huge bucks, although he grew up studying capoeira with a well known mestre.

To call this last Friday bizarre would be charitable. Starting Friday night, I went to the UC Long Beach Hillel for shabbat dinner. It was hosted on campus as opposed to the usual, at his home, but a good time was had by all, and there were a few new faces.

This particular evening, a Polish student that happens to be living at the Rabbi's home, was running towards his 3 year old son, and I saw as the student had his feet slip out from under him while sliding towards the child. When his heels made about a 45 degree angle with the tile, the student athletically picked up the rabbi's son, and cradled him on his chest. It appeared that the child had been well protected, but I found out later that his shin had been broken completely in two places, and that he needed a splint, due to swelling issues. At the time, I was unaware of the severity of the situation.

I decided to play chaperone to some of the students, for a cinco de mayo house party. At one point in time, one of the girls was hitting on me, and I told her to run off. She asked me to show her "what I've got." I told her if I did that, I'd break her in half. This only got her pursuing harder, of course, but eventually she ended up hooking up with her friend Ben, which made me happy. Now to make a long story short, I've never seen anyone vomit due to alchohol, my friends know how to take care of themselves. That night, I saw three people vomiting simultaneously. One in the bathroom (the girl who was hitting on me), one in the kitchen, and one in the living room with a trashcan. The guy in the living room was a seikh, and so bad off that he had white spit. Fortunately, someone had the realization that he needed the paramedics. The girl who hit on me was dry heaving more or less, and I ended up carrying her to her dorm, accompanied by her friends. She needed to be fed water, but I think things turned out well at the end. Still, this bizarro behavior is why I'm glad I'm not in college anymore.

On Saturday, I took a class from Chicho Frumboli, and danced at El Encuentro until 3 AM, prior to a drive back to the OC. Chicho hasn't been in the US for about 4 years, and is one of the biggest names in tango. He happens to live in Paris, and whenever he shows up anywhere, with a week's notice, he can pack in the crowds. Now that was a good time.