Reading The Tea

Last night my friend and I ate our first out-of-doors meal of the season. Coats were still needed, but we could relish gnocchi and pizza from the charming Carol Gardens Savoia Pizzeria ($12 range, with nice wine by the glass for $6-8). At Fall Cafe Bronwen read from a new manuscript. (She has a new hand-sewn chapbook, go check it out.) After the reading everyone went en masse to Abilene for drinks and fries (or in my case, stealing other people’s fries). To finish the evening, we headed over the Brooklyn Social. I need to go back there. The ginger martini was amazing.

I haven’t posted for quite some time, so this is just going to be jumble of things that I’ve intended to write full posts about, but somehow haven’t found the time.

First, sympathy to everyone affected by the Virginia Tech shootings yesterday. There’s a lot to say about that, but my fingers won’t type the right things, so I’ll leave it at that.

Did the Yale Tango Festival weekend-before-last. It was my very first tango festival (Awww…)! Now I’m afraid that I’m going to become an addict. One of the highlights for me was Robin & Jennifer’s gaucho class. Now I (likely) embarress anyone with the misfortune to wait on a subway platform or elevator bank with me by practicing letting my leg have it’s own weight while swinging. Brigetta and Tomas’ milonga musicality class may just have changed my feeling about that dance forever. After a couple of classes from the school of thought where you have to keep. going. on. every. beat. sometimes. go twice. but. always. fast. I was sure that I’d never really enjoy it. They introduced the revolutionary idea of actually listening to the music, and varying speed of step accordingly (twice in a beat, every beat, every other beat, long pauses…). I lead Carlos and Tova’s turns class, but actually took away an interesting exercise that mostly pertains to follows — put all of your weight on one foot, twist your upper body 90 degrees on one directions, and let your lower body catch up. Repeat. Good obliques workout, different way of thinking about ochos.

In other tango news, I took a follower’s technique over at Dance Manhattan from Valeria. She puts so much musicality and expression into just an ocho, just a step. Tempo/ emphasis can be effective embellishments.

Since I didn’t get around to posting last Friday, the 13th, I’ll mention now that some people suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia.

Last night I went to the  church of craft meeting in the East Village, at the lovely new Rapture Cafe. Lovely people, lovely projects, lovely cafe.

Last Friday night/ Saturday morning Dustin & I went to the last big party at 3rd Ward. As the danger parties tend to be, it was eclectic, bleary, pillowy, flashing, with lots of new friends.

Other things going on in life, decisions being made. How’s that for nice & vague? Almost a flashback to my early LJ days…

March 17th we celebrated Dustin’s b-day at relatively new b-burg spot Hope Lounge. Since it’s so new, and not even remotely Irish, we were pretty much able to take it over. It has potential as a place, provided they get new bartenders… 

After midnight Dustin, Julia, Antonio and I went around the corner to salsa at Bar Rose, where they had a live music and a lively dance floor. The guys I danced with kept asking where I was from. One guy commented that I dance “like they do at home.” (Home turned out to be Columbia.) I’m going to take that as a huge compliment. I would highly recommend going to the next event there — besides the dancing & music Bar Rose has great wallpaper and the bartender is great.

I was surprised to get an annoucement in my inbox for their next event with the above photos. I don’t even remember them being taken, though I seem to be posing… (I’m on the far right, Julia is dancing in the middle photo.) 

Like most of Williamsburg, there’s a big new building in construction across the street from my apartment. The construction on this building is responsibile for the layer of pretty white power that greeting me as I entered my building last night. In New York Januarys, snow (in drifts not in dustings) is normal. But no, tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 60s. And the white landscape is inside my apartment. We’ve been keeping the window open, because the steam pipes don’t know that it’s well (well) above freezing, and have been steaming merrily on, so the sticky construction dust found a home.

This morning, the construction site had other, um, technical difficulties. If you look closely on the right side of the first photo, you can see my window. Great.

My friend Adam, known to some as “Fair Coz,” has opened a lovely bookstore in Fort Greene/Park Slope. For all you bibliophiles, I highly recommend that you check it out. When you walk in, you’re instantly immersed in books, with loose categorizations and intriguing possibilities — the perfect place for finding books that you desperately need, you just didn’t know it yet. The first time I was there I went home with a lovely full-color Pilobolus Alphabet book. Another time I met an antique how-to book on baseball. Having never developed an understanding of the classic american sport, it almost seduced me, but that time I held strong, and took a couple of novels home with me instead. If you’re ever at a loss, Adam or the lovely Emily are there to guide you through your book-finding adventure. I urge all to go to the Grand Opening Celebration this Sunday. (Though the store has been open since June, this is the celebration.) I’ve heard rumors of refreshments available, and many local authors are giving readings.

Schedule of Readings/Performances

12:00 – 1:00 : Rick Pernod, Andrea Baker, Bronwen Tate

1:00 – 2:00 : Jenn Guitart, Tisa Bryant, Lynn Xu

2:00 – 3:00 : Christopher Myers, Erika Howsare, Jackie Delamatre

3:00 – 4:00 : Will Hubbard, Jess DeCourcy Hinds, Amber West

4:00 – 5:00 : Eve Packer, Holly Tavel, Fred Schmalz

5:00 – 6:00 : Mac Wellman, Erin Courtney, Jonathan Ceniceroz

6:00 – 7:00 : Anika Haynes, Gareth Lee, Brenda Iijima

7:00 – 8:00 : Luisa Guigliano, Jennifer Hayashida, Christopher Stackhouse

8:00 – 9:00 : Bonnie Emerick, Amy King, Adam Tobin

Adam’s Books 718.789.1534

456 Bergen St. 11217 (between 5th Ave. & Flatbush)