Getting used to it - quite happily

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 1PM
Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize that this is actually happening. I look around the boat and everything looks the same and then the phone rings and it is a gypsy wanting to party. Our disappointment with the local peña has been replaced with the delight of finding an enthusiastic clan of gypsies who are crazy for flamenco as we are. The major singer is Miguel - Gitano de Bronce, who has some CDs and sang for a year in New York. Second most enthusiastic is Angél, also known as Negro. All these folks are from the Agujetas family, coming from both sides of it. This is a very famous gypsy family that has produced some of the finest and purest flamenco singers. Miguel and Angél are solidly in that tradition - just what I like!

Here they are, Miguel on my left and Angél on my right.

Here is Angél singing - he is the son of the late Gordo Agujetas and sounds very much like a recording we have of Gordo.

Miguel invited us to his house and when we got there, we found that he had arranged a big party with lots of wonderful guests, great tapas, everything. I was the only guitarist and apparently they don't often have access to a guitarist because they kept me playing all night. When it got too late for the neighbors, we went off to a nearby bar. Could it get any better? Yes, the next night when we were at the Fiesta de la Buleria in Jerez, Miguel called to see if we could come to a BBQ that night. Well, unless Newton was wrong, we couldn't be in two places at the same time, but were certainly gratified to be asked back so quickly.

A constant source of pleasure is the food. Andrea makes a wonderful tortilla and we've got some of my gazpacho in the refrigerator. We have two kinds of olives to try and 4 different kinds of chorizo. In the store, we walk right by spices that we would have hoarded before because we know that we can always get them. Andrea just made an ensaladia rusa (sort of a potato salad) that was sooooo good that she could go into business selling it to every bar in town. (they all have it). Hers is so good that they would just throw theirs away if they tried hers.

We still don't have internet, so I have to go to the library to send these posts in. You can reach us via sailmail instantly, however. Hope this isn't boring. If you read this for the sailing, I'm afraid the slant will be heavily flamenco for a while.