¿Donde Pupy va a tocar?

It’s a bit early in the trip to be having bad luck with gigs, but I guess there are no rules for that sort of thing and so it is that I missed my first chance to see Pupy. I was going to go with Duniesky - and of course if I had, I would have made it, but I decided to take a Cuban friend and said I’d see Duny there instead. Unfortunately I thought it was Cafe Cantante and didn’t realise it was Miramar till I’d gone to Vedado, realised it wasn’t on there, come back to the house, and checked with Duny’s wife (note: buy a phone card and take a list of numbers out with you). By this stage it was 7.40 and there were no taxis in the street. By 8pm I had to admit defeat. Curse Miramar for being so far away! And if I’d had a radio, I might have heard that they were on, and known where to go. And if I had doublechecked with Duny & etc.

I’m gutted as you can imagine. But there is another chance to see them on Friday at Galiano; and perhaps out at Cotorro if I can get a seat on the band’s bus. I have a friend arriving in town that day, but friend shmiend. If I can’t get her a seat on it as well, I’m sure she will understand.

Went down to the Casa del Tango on Neptuno where some friends were s’posed to be enjoying a milonga (for you tango fans, there is also one from 5pm on Tuesdays on Prado near the Sevilla), but they weren’t there either. So my amigo and me took a turn along the Malecon and talked for a while and now here I am. Not the way I envisaged the night turning out.

The Canal Cubano cartelera says Reve is on at Miramar (grrr) tomorrow night. I will really make a big effort to get to that, seeing as last year I only had one chance to see them and I flubbed it. I don’t want to do that again. Last time I saw them was 2004. I’m trying to think who I can rope into staying up that late and coming with me. I am notorious for piking on the night gigs when I am on my own. Belascoain isn’t the friendliest street to venture into on your own at midnight looking for a taxi.

Tomorrow I will buy that radio that I saw in the shops and didn’t buy today. By tomorrow, it will probably be gone. It’s a sign of things changing here that the shops have hardly any radios at all (in fact, in my scout around town, I saw only two). Or maybe it’s just that this week, they are low on radios. Either way, along with the everpresent ghetto blasters, the electrical sections of the shops mostly had just car stereos and mp3 players.