En La Ciudad De La Havana

If you're like me, you're always on the lookout for good new salsa music. Well, if so, you're going to like this song I have for you! Actually, you should be hearing it right now!




This song was never actually released. I heard it on one of Eric Freeman's Cuban videos, and I LOVED it. But, I couldn't figure out who it was. I emailed Eric and asked him about 'that one song', and he told me that the song came from a demo tape mady by a Cuban band called La Dinastia. It's called "En La Ciudad de la Havana".

I asked him where I could pick up the CD... and he said, "You can't." Apparently, the group had broken up. But, I was haunted by this song. I NEEDED to dance to it, at least one time. I begged and pleaded, and Eric being the cool guy that he is, gave me a copy.

And now, in that spirit, I want to share it with you. This isn't slow, salsa Romantica type *ish, so be warned. It's STR8 HEAT! So if you feel like sweating, grab a partner and crank this. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Have a nice weekend, and rip some floor for me :)

Myth of the Clave

Contrary to popular belief, the clave does not favor any one style of dancing. In fact, when it comes to dancing on clave, all styles are mathematically equal. Lets take the example of the two most common claves... 2/3 and 3/2.

In order to demostrate how this works, we'll need some notation. I could spend some time making fancy graphics, but I'm lazy. Anyway, here is the methodology. First, I made a strip that indicates the beats. Because the clave falls on half beats, I used half beat resolution:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

(YES, I am a big fat salsa nerd)

Then, I made 'X' marks to indicate where the clave falls on that beat:

| x |   x   | x |   | x | x |   |

Beneath the 'X' marks, I marked how the dancer would actually move in relationship to the clave. If the person actually stepped, then I marked it with an asterisk. If the person just weight shifted, then I marked it with a period:

| * | . | * |   | * | . | * |   |

Still with me?

Then, all I did was add up the scores. If a step fell on the same beat as the clave, I marked it with an 'a'. If it fell on the same beat as a weight shift, I marked it with a 'b'. Then, I just added up the a's and the b's. Check it out:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

| x |   x   | x |   | x | x |   | Forward Clave 3:2
| * | . | * |   | * | . | * |   | On 1
                                                
a                   b   a       = 2a+b                


|   | x | x |   | x |   x   | x | Reverse Clave 2:3
| * | . | * |   | * | . | * |   | On 1
    b   a       a               = 2a+b                   


| x |   x   | x |   | x | x |   | Forward Clave 3:2
| * | * | . |   | * | * | . |   | On 2
a                   a   b       = 2a+b                 


|   | x | x |   | x |   x   | x | Reverse Clave 2:3
| * | * | . |   | * | * | . |   | On 2
    a   b       a               = 2a+b                   


| x |   x   | x |   | x | x |   | Forward Clave 3:2
|   | * | . | * |   | * | . | * | Ballroom 2
            a       a   b       = 2a+b                   


|   | x | x |   | x |   x   | x | Reverse Clave 2:3
|   | * | . | * |   | * | . | * | Ballroom 2
    a   b                   a   = 2a+b              

As you can see, every style expresses the clave equally. More specifically, all styles express it with two steps and one shift. I've run experiments with other forms of clave as well, and this seems to generalize fairly well.

There ARE differences between the various styles out there... differences that can be exactly and logically described. But, I will explain those in a future article. For now, just rest assured that no matter what style of salsa you are dancing, YOU are dancing ON CLAVE :)

Banker wins back $8 mln in Salsa dance case

How stupid can you be? Apparently, pretty damn...

"HONG KONG (Reuters) - A high-profile Hong Kong banker and ballroom dancing fanatic won a lawsuit on Wednesday against her Salsa instructors, who were ordered to return her HK$62 million (4.2 million pounds) dollars for lessons she never took."

Now, you may think that I'm calling the woman who paid 4.2 million pounds for unlimited private lessons stupid. But you would be wrong. It continues...

"After she put down a HK$62 million deposit, she said the relationship turned sour. Saccani admitted in a High Court hearing to calling Wong a 'lazy cow', and telling her to "move her arse" during a packed ballroom dancing session in August 2004."

I would like to state publicly for the record that if anyone out there would like to give me 8 million dollars for unlimited private lessons, I am available. I promise, once you have given me your deposit, I will not call you a 'lazy cow' in front of your friends. And I will not tell you to move your arse. Even if it is not moving. Sound good? Call me.

Read the full story here:
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1316062006

SalsaFix is BACK!!!

In the beginning, there was SalsaFix... the love child of a salsa ADDICT with way too much time on his hands and a job with not enough to do. It started out, simply, like many blogs do. A few articles. A few links. But as time passed, it began to gain traction. People started visiting. Readership grew. And before long, over 50,000 people were hitting it every month.

The articles and links were a mix of the provocative and the mundane. Stories about the latest CD releases were found next to no-holds-barred editorials that generated calls from Lawyers and threats of lawsuits. (Remember the ZUMBA story, anyone?) Honest reviews sparked heated debates, and even resulted in crazy psycho chicks from Canada calling my house pretending to be the police (Remember THAT SHIT Rose? Who WAS that girl again?)

But, SalsaFix remained. Undaunted. Only one thing could stop it... economics. And children. Okay. TWO things. First, the economics.

One day, I decided to leave my craphole of a job and become a full time
Salsa teacher. I had analyzed the situation in full. On the happiness meter, it seemed like a no brainer. Write code all day vs Surf all day and teach salsa at night. EASY.

However, I failed to consider the impact that leaving my very cush salaried position would have on my mortgage and finances. Or rather, I overestimated the time it would take me to build up enough students to sustain my previous lifestyle. I had an incredible space right in Waikiki, looking out on to the convention center. I had a rich Japanese patron. I had the moves people wanted to learn. Why WOULDNT they beat a trail to the door?

Oh innocence and youth!

On top of that, my daughter had just been born. So, in addition to having no money, I was getting possibly 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. And that went on for months. I have heard stories about newborn children who sleep through the night. And I am convinced they are all lies. The only way a newborn will sleep through the night is if you stay awake the entire night (they seem to like to wake up when you fall asleep) or if it has a tit in its mouth. And since daddy wasn't sleeping, he wasnt about to give up his titties to some scrawny infant.

At any rate, something had to give. And, it was the many hours a day that I spent searching for stories and editing SalsaFix. I had hoped that the site would become self sustaining at some point. But, the only submissions I got were from people that wanted to promote something. I knew that readership and quality would plummet if I gave it over to the promoters (no hate to promoters, I am one myself)... so, I decided to do what any self respecting journalist would do. I killed it myself, before allowing it to die a slow death.

It was an agonizing decision. And yet, it was the right one. At it's peak of popularity, 50,000 unique views a month, I pulled the plug. My friends thought I was an idiot. Maybe I was. But I always knew in my heart that SalsaFix would rise again. Someday. And guess what? That day has come!

To everyone that supported SalsaFix in the past, THANK YOU. I hope you will come back and join me for the same high quality links, articles and reviews that made you a fan back in the day. And to all the new people coming to this site, BUCKLE UP. The ride is about to begin.

SalsaFix is BACK!!!