Cintura timba 4 eva

Listened to Disco Fiesta today - is that the best name for a radio station ever, or what? - and discovered that Charanga Forever were playing at Casa de la Musica Miramar. There was no competition elsewhere so off I went. Wow. These chiquiticos rock. Really. They are in great form and sounding much better than the recent demos which are floating around. - the horns on those are so sharp they'll make your eyes water. There was like 50 people there, plus Michel Maza and his bodyguard. When the MC mentioned that Michel was there and I turned my head wildly to see him, so of course when I located him he was looking straight at me. I smiled and waved and got a smile and a wave back. Awww. He sang half of Nube Pasajera with them and a bit of Una dispara en la mirada. He was good too. Of course. He and his bodyguard skedaddled after he'd had his spot in the limelight. CF has, I think, a new singer: very charismatic chap who sings and dances really well, and is great with the audience too. I suspect he will shortly be snapped up by a bigger group. The other two (not as good) I seem to recall from 2004. The songs were great and though the set was short (less than an hour I think) it really rocked. Excellent old-school timba. Gonna try and see them again. Well worth it. When my friend and I walked out it was PISSING down. The street out front was a river - that converged with other rivers at various intersections. We walked with the two Japanese girls down to the main street (I took off my shoes and socks and rolled my jeans up) and flagged down a 4-wheel drive: lucky he stopped for us; most other cars didn't make it. The streets; more than knee-deep in water were littered with abandoned vehicles. We had to go all the way round the world to drop the Japanese off - then he went all the way round the world - we wound up on Calzada del Cerro, which I know from the Irakere song; and passed the baseball stadium to get to Belascoain. I'm not sure if it was because the streets were flooded or because driver didn't know his way around (quite possible). It took us more than 90 minutes to get home. My friend said, as we did a u-turn on yet another submerged street, and drove passed stalled cars: this is why Cubans don't go out when it rains. Thank god Galiano is within walking distance of my house. Of course, when I finally arrived back at my house, my bedroom had flooded too. Así es la vida. © Gabriel Wilder 2006