- activism
- anarchy
- apocalypse
- Athens
- bicycles
- birds
- books
- Buenos Aires
- clubs
- coffee
- couple's dancing
- Dante's Inferno
- demons
- drunks
- Dyckman
- economy
- film
- fire hydrants
- graffiti
- Greek diners
- gross factor
- Havana
- idling
- immigration
- Inwood
- Ioannina
- it's a man's world
- Miami
- New York City
- Nova Speaks
- Ode to...
- odyssey essentials
- olympians
- on the subway
- Outer Space
- paradise
- police
- press
- prostitution
- public space
- restaurants
- Rio
- salsa
- school
- Sicily
- sidewalks
- Sinvergüenza
- star trek
- star wars
- stores
- street cookie
- taxis
- trees
- twilight zone
- urban confessions
- Washington Heights
- zipcar
When Salsa Characters Dress as Salsa Characters
Halloween for the salsa crowd is sort of like an outing of all those inner salsa characters that emanate from the hearts and dance of certain salsero(a)s. It’s like our salsa characters jump out from the words of this screen, liberated to live the lives we pretend to live for them (STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION MOMENT: EPISODE WHEN MORIARTY WALKS OUT FROM THE FANTASY WORLD OF THE HOLODECK TO DECKS OF THE ENTERPRISE). Honestly, going to a Halloween Social felt like the characters from my fiction world broke out of jail and I was partying hard with them.
Out of the Looking Glass, here were some salsa characters that showed their scary faces at Halloween:
The Pimp: His bitches are all his students: the girls he makes wear heels, the guys he forces to do a male macho strip tease (oh, ok, they were shines). He has his dancing way with all the girls whenever he wants them, and even the quivering male student too, if a point is needed to be made. The pimp goes by the name of teacher (Jedi) on every day except Halloween.
Narcissus: Boy do they come out on Halloween. It’s like all the salsa characters defect into this character come Halloween. Most girls would rather be dancing with a mirror than their partners on the Night of the Dead.
The-Ugly-Green-Eyed-Monster: Oh, doesn’t this sound so very Halloween? Unfortunately, these characters DON’T wear a mask or costume. It’s them in their naked, bare-ass form. They are conjured when a Narcicuss places the mirror in front of his/her face, though the Narcissus doesn’t notice it. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who’s the ugliest of them all ? The Ugly-Green-Eyed-Monster. They have the chromosomal pre-disposition of being XX and spend more time glaring at other XX’s than they focusing on their dancing. Like the Cheater who scans the room for his next dance during a dance, the Ugly-Green-Eyed-Monster is so possessed with 
envy it scans the room with eyes of venom, looking to hate. What is the garlic for this vampire? Go on with your business, smile, ignore them. They will likely gain another frowning wrinkle, and wither away.
The Sexpot: It’s our chance to dress how we really feel when we dance. Prudes, get over it.
Closeted Psychopath: Don’t want to take off your mask for us to see you? Dressing as a comic book character with an unknown father who kills people who remind him of his prostitute mother? Buddy, move on from this salsera. You are probably a Shy-But-Why in your real life salsa character. Scrawny and gentle.
I’m-just-too-cool: Coming to a Halloween Social without a costume, or even a mask? Really? The only excuse for this is some serious spiritual conflict about worshipping spirits of the dead.
Succubus: The salsera/o who latches onto you because they are afraid to be alone, don’t know how to mingle and just love to feed on your energy. Be gone, ye Succubus. Go make your own party.
The Dog: The Salseros who spot a Sexpot but mistake her for a fire hydrant. A Predator when it isn’t Halloween.
Keep clicking for more salsa characters…
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When a salsera goes (responsibly) postal
As freeing as salsa is, there are moments when a salsera asks herself:
- what curse brought you into my life that I have to learn 188 shines that go by 188 different names in different studios?
- how many damn stretch pants can I own and not look like a mannequin at Strawberry’s?
- why, why, why am I touching the unknown hands of so many unknown men with so many unknown thoughts as they touch me?
- why do I subject myself to spontaneous Mr. Fantastic moves by men who don’t know what they’re doing?
There is a need for ninja salsa courses where experienced male dancers can accelerate the learning of the females so we don’t have to wait around for the learning curve to kick in. I got a crash salsa start this way. I now feel held back, with all humility because before this I had a hard time keeping up. It’s time to communicate this to the teachers.
The saving grace that prevents me from using my salsa stilettos as ninja stars into the heads of jerks, and those who are gaining experience from me but not giving any back, is that all this is part of a wonderful learning process that eventually will evolve into a high command of dance and unison with a celebratory form of music. When one gets grouchy, remember, you are gaining tools to make a “better fun”. And it’s a team effort, sometimes you have to be a Robin Hood. Blah. Ok.
I think I’ll go practice shines by myself in the corner until I decide it’s worth it again.
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Free those words! Writers’ Liberation
Highly recommended for those writers who spend way too much time worrying about the rules of grammar.
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Once upon a tree
Columbus Circle Area, NYC October 2010
What does this remind you of? A tombstone for a tree? With all the storms we’ve had this year, I’ll say it again: It’s been a bad year for NYC trees. A bricked up tree pit is somewhat sad, no? Life was once there, but someone didn’t want it to ever return again.
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