Looking Ahead: Travel Update Feb/Mar 2011

I am excited to announce that I've got a lot going on over the next few weeks, starting tonight. Here are the details:

Tonight, Feb 21, I will performing at Luna Tango Salon with the wonderful Rebecca Shulman. 

From this Friday Feb 25, I will be in Saint Louis for two weeks, Starting with a "Connenction / Technique / Musicality Bootcamp" over the weekend. I will also be teaching Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Visit my website or Facebook for details.

March 5th I will be DJing at one of my favorite milongas in Chicago "Los Besos Milonguita". Before the the Milonga I will be teaching a class on "Social-Dance Friendly Boleos".

After Saint Louis I head to Kansas City for the "Spring Fling Tango Thing" Mar 11-13. I am DJing the All Night Milonga and teaching the Beginner Bootcamp with Janey Smith.

Back to NYC to DJ at the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant Milonga on April 1st.

I then head out to the West Coast - Santa Barbara - for some Argentine Tango Fun in the California Sun! More information will be available soon.

Tangamente,

Eli

DJ Eli Fest

Normally I try to space out my tango DJ gigs, so I don't get bored of my music, but more importantly so the dancers don't get bored of my music. Try as had as I might, this was not to be that case. Between gigs being rescheduled and last minute phone calls from organizors I ended up DJing 5 of 7 nights January 4 -10.

Dubbed "DJ Eli Fest" here was the schedule:
- Tue: Triangulo
- Wed: Tango Cafe, Traditional Room
- Fri: DanceTango Milonga @ The Ukrainian Restaurant
- Sat: Practilonga-939
- Mon: Luna  @ Dance Manhatten

I had a lot of fun. I had challenged myself to not play the same song more than once with the exception of vals and milongas. I pretty much stuck to it and it really got me going, creating tandas on the fly, playing things I might not normally. Also, in honor of Carlos Di Sarli's birthday (Jan 7) I played 11 tandas of his music at Practilonga-939.

Overall it went well. I'm looking forward to the Houston Tango Marathon (Jan 21-23) where I've been invited as a "sponsored instructor" and teaching in Lawrence and Kansas City (Jan 24 - 30).

The Long Road Home

It's official. I will finally return to Brooklyn, New York City.

I have a few loose ends (weekly classes, private lessons and Workshops in Minneapolis) to tie up before I start the journey, but as it stands here is the current plan:

Jan 28: Last day in Minneapolis

Jan 29: Fly to Kansas City

Jan 30: Workshops in Lawrence, KS

Feb 2: DJ @ CODA in Kansas City, MO (Tentative)

Feb 3: Amtrak from Kansas City to Chicago

Feb 5: Perform at Milonga ñ Grand Opening, Chicago

Feb 6: DJ @ Los Besos Milonguita, Chicago

Feb 9: Amtrak from Chicago to Portland, OR

Feb 11: Arrive in Portland

Feb 11-16: Portland Valentango!

Feb 17: Fly from Portland to New York LGA

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Details of Weekly Classes in MSP:

Wednesday Classes at Social Dance Studio

* 7:00: Foundations 2/3, Topic: "Rock the Boat"

* 8:15: Intermediate: Topic: Musicality & Connection

Thursday Classes at Manzanita Escuela de Tango

* 7:00: "Essential vocabulary"

* 8:00: "Technique for Everyone"

Pizza and Mobsters

Today I had some pizza in Minneapolis, the name of the place was "New York Pizza by the Slice". "by the slice" was something I had to get accustomed to. It seems that most pizza places outside NYC (with the exception of chains /franchises /etc) only sell pizza by the pie, so places that sell by the slice usually have "by the slice" in their name or somewhere in their signage. In New York there are very few places that only sell by the pie and such places will usually have a sign on the door "no slices". (I can only think of one place, Grimaldi's in Brooklyn, that doesn't sell slices.)
So what made this place "New York Pizza"? In one corner of the place there were photos of yankee stadium and other yankess memorabelia. One wall had various pictures of NYC tourist spots like the Statue of Liberty, the Twin Towers, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Central Park. On the same wall were two pictures of Italy, one of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the other of a bridge over one of the canals in Venice. Yes, pizza as we know is derived from an Italian food by the same name, but I am not sure it originates from either Pisa or Venice.
One entire wall was devoted to pictures of characters from various mob movies such as "The Godfather", "Goodfellas", "The Sopranos" etc.... Yes, I get that these movies were set in New York, and that the characters are of Italian descent, but I've never seen anyone in a mob movie eat pizza (I have not watched the sopranos), so "what gives?".
New York is not all about pizza either. New York is about every kind of food whenever and wherever you want it. When I was down in Kansas City, Janey said to me "You New Yorkers, every time you leave New York, it seems as though you are afraid you're gonna starve to death!". It's true. In The City, you never have to walk more than 3 blocks at any time of day or night and you can get a fresh bite to eat. We're not talking about chips and pretzels. We're talking hot sandwiches, salads, tacos, gyros, and so on. Everywhere else I've been, eating takes planning, especially if you are at the mercy of public transportation. In some cities it is impossible to eat after 10pm, or if you can you must drive for 25 minutes to some bad chain sort of place.
While New York is not "only about pizza", some places are known for certain things. Kansas City - barbecue. Minnesota - the walleye fish. Wisconsin - beer, cheese and sausage. Wisconsin is a funny place. Drive down any street or highway in the USA and you will see signs at gas stations that say "GAS - BEER - CIGARETTES", in Wisconsin they say "GAS - BEER - CHEESE - CIGARETTES". "Say Cheese :-) "
At the end of the year I will be in Seattle, known for good coffee and its smoked salmon. I'm looking forward to it.

Back to Brooklyn

Wednesday 7am CDT, Minneapolis: I wake up.
I go about getting ready, I reflect that I've got time to get a decent breakfast before I need to leave at 8am to head to airport for my 10:30 flight. Suddenly I feel a pang of fear as I am somehow reminded that my ID has expired. Scratching breakfast from the menu, I decide to head to airport right away to allow for any extra time it will take me to get through security.

I get on line at the security checkpoint, and comment to one of the TSA folks that it is "too early in the morning for me" She says "too early?! It's 9am!"

Wednesday 9am CDT, MSP Airport: TSA presses secret button as notices my ID is expired.
The Department of Homeland Security must really think that terrorist are stupid. One would think that a terrorist would try to do everything possible to avoid attention eg have a proper ID. Apparently this is not the case. The TSA staffers informed me that I was the lucky winner of their lottery, that I was going to have all my stuff thoroughly searched. I had planned on it.

Wednesday 9:15am CDT, MSP Airport: Search is complete.
I head away from the security checkpoint toward my gate. Of course it was the last gate in the terminal but luckily I was flying out of Humphrey (the smaller of the 2 terminals at MSP) so it was not that long of a walk. I arrive at the gate and notice the board indicates the flight departing from that gate is going somewhere I don't want to go. I look back at my boarding pass - I am the gate printed, I check the departure screens, yes, I was at the right gate but I realize that my flight does not depart at 10:30 as I thought, rather 11:30. "Fail"

The rest of my return travel was relatively uneventful. I flew MSP to MKE (Milwaukee), layed over for an hour or two. MKE to LGA. I love LGA - the least amount of walking from gate to curb (in central terminal). I started to take the bus to the subway but ended up on the phone with my dad who came to pick me in Queens on his way home from the Bronx. Thanks Dad!

Wednesday 8pm EDT: Brooklyn, NY

3am travel logistics rant

I am ususally very good about planning my trips, packing etc. This does not mean that this is all done in a linear and timely manner. For example: Wednesday morning I will be flying out of Minneapolis bound for NYC, I will visit with my folks for all of 2 days, go to DMV to renew my expired drivers license, pick up some winter clothes and the viola that I claim I will learn to play once I get back to Minneapolis. I spend the weekend at the Princeton Tango Festival where I will be DJing at one of the practicas. Tuesday I fly to Portland for the October Tango Fest. The following Tuesday I fly back to Minneapolis. I not sure what you would think about how the flight arrangements were mad but it happened sort of like this - mid July I found a ticket from NWK to PDX for 115USD (tax incl - US Airways) so I snatched it up, though it requires 8 hours of airtime and a 1.5 hour layover in PHX. Late August I Realized that I still did not figure out how I was going to get to NY to DJ at Princeton so after a few hours of research I found an Airtran flight from MSP via MKE to LGA for $89 on Airtran. I delayed getting a return flight for probably a bit too long becuase i wan not sure if I am going to be resuming the "Monday, Tuesday in Chicago every week" hustle after Portland so didnt know where I should fly to, nor what day I could fly. So i just got my PDX to MSP tix 166USD us airways again. I had been telling people over the last couple of days that if i did not find flights under 150USD then I would take the train becuset the train is 150. But then I realized that the train take about 2.5 days and I would end up spending a lot more than the $10 on food.
So you're asking: "Great, so what is the problem?" well I realized that Portland in just a week away and I have not even begun looking for a place to stay. this is bad, so many dancers go to Portland so competition for couchspace is fierce.
Also, I am trying to decide what to do with the stuff I have here. I would like to leave it here since I will be back in 2 weeks. but where?