Salsa Sam’s Rantings

I hate it when:

• Moron’s who drive on the an incoming lane (no priority) don’t signal and expect you to give way when they nose dive in front of your car, after you’ve been waiting patiently at a never-moving lane…
• Large Mercedes-Benz drivers who prance around on the fastest lane in a 4-lane highway and expect you to wait for them to finish talking on the phone before they change lanes…
• Having to go pee, 5 mins from your house, and the policeman decides that your low priority roadaway should wait three rounds of green lights before waving you on to move…
• Malaysian pedestrians who give you the what-the-hell’s-wrong-with-you look when you slow down and give them way, and after 15 secs, you start moving, and they give you this face like you’re some kind of dumb-ass…
• Malaysian women who refuse to allow you to hold the door for them when they have their hands full and obviously need a hand at the door…
• People who give you a call at bloody 8:55am in the morning, ask a thousand and one questions, take 9 minutes on the phone and never show up to your studio…
• People who call you up at 10:55pm in the evening and expect you to entertain them as they ask a million minute questions like why you only choose to teach Salsa at a Salsa school…
• Someone you don’t know comes up to you in a Salsa club, gives you funny looks, interrupts you while you’re talking with your friends, and drags you onto the dance floor saying that you should dance with them so they can learn something from you…
• People who always call you  up with a private number and only repeat "guess who?", "you don’t know who this is, right?", "I bet you can’t guess who this is…" for minutes at a time and you’ve already missed 2 calls because they have a sick perversion for making you feel horrible after a long day…
• Students who don’t show up after weeks and weeks of classes, who suddenly show up during a very very busy time in between your busiest classes, and demand their class fees (which expired months ago) to be refunded. What the &$@##^!^$&!^&*!^&*##&^!&#&##&*%%##!!

I love it when:

• My students who struggle every week, come to class early, and they do everything right!
• My students who struggle in class but keep trying to do it right…
• Students who ask questions!!
• Students who talk to me like a real person after/before class, and not make me feel like a 95-year old lecturer who’s supposed to know it all…
• Chatty and helpful workers at Macro…
• Shop-owners who don’t recommend a more expensive product who tell you that the are other things that cost less which will help you do more…
• Going into a shop and getting free advice from a good natured, honest, shop-owner, who would rather have a good conversation about digital cameras than trying to sell your their most expensive product out of your budget…
• I sit down and have in front of me, in less than 1 minute, two limau-ice kurang manis after a long long day…

Recently caught up on some movies. Here’s what I think… WWITM = wouldn’t watchit in the movies, so that’s why I got a DVD player..

Unleashed: mad, violent, fun, actually to sum it up - mad fun! Not as good as The One, but quite entertaining. Excellent fight scenes which reminds me I need to stock up on Jet Li DVD’s, but corny romance and WWITM.

Miss Congeniality 2: Bad flick, not even a chick-flick, saw some omitted scenes, thank goodness ‘cos she looks ugly in those. Definitely WWITM, but for a senseless night of humm-drumm-dunno-what-to-do, I guess it’s ok…

Hitchikers’ Guide to the Galaxy: Sci-Fi Geeks like me’ll love it. Senseless fun-poking at sci-fi blings and things. Makes me finally want to go back and finish the book that I started reading when I was 12. But definitely WWITM.

Wallace and Gromit: I love clay animation. I know this is old, but I had to write about this! This latest DVD contains all three in the trilogy, before Chicken Run. Personally, prefer The Wrong Trousers, but some parts of The Close Shave had much more complicated animation, all still very cool. Reminds me of my college days, going to England for holiday, and my brother Johan and cousin Ken, sigh!

XXX2: What a dumb name, but I actually watched the 1st one and thought it was silly but very entertaining boom-boom cool gadgets hot babes, movies. Senseless non-thinking, good way to spend the last day of the weekend before a new week!

Mr & Mrs Smith: I actually found this quite sexy and entertaining. Not really corny. Love the scene when they shoot ‘em up back to back. And Jane’s oven shop, very cool! Ok lah ok lah she’s quite hot….

Kingdom of Heaven: MY PICK OF THE MONTH! Makes me wanna be a better man. Makes me wanna go read up on religion/history/some good non-fiction. Very quotable quotes. Oh, also makes me wanna study Sun Tsu’s Art of War. DEFINITELY WOULDN’T MIND SEEING IT FOR THE 3RD TIME in the Movies! Epic movie, of course from the "Gladiator" Director there’s a lot of killing, but the mass killing-arms-and-armour scenes are incredible feats of cinematography (with just enough gore for my tastes!) Of course there’s a hot babe, but she’s only got a supporting role, but thank god for her strong personality and yummy lips - I like my women that way!

There was a prist in a small village, who was very fond of the rooster and the 10 hens he kept at the back of the parish house. One Saturday night, the rooster went missing, and the priest suspected it had been stolen.

The next day, at the morning mass, he asked the congregation, "Has anybody got a cock?"

All the men stood up.

"No," the priest said, "That wasn’t what I meant. Has anybody seen a cock?"

All the women stood up.

"No!" he said with annoyance. "That’s not what I meant. Has anybody seen a cock that doesn’t belong to them?"

Half the women stood up.

"No, no!" he said angrily. "That wasn’t what I meant, either."

"Has anybody seen my cock?!"

All the choirboys stood up.

The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service at a hotel in Hong Kong…

Room Service (RS): "Moling! loom sirfesee"

Guest (G ): "Yes……"

(RS): "Dju witch true odor somefing??"

(G ): "Uh..yes..I’d like some bacon and eggs"

(RS): "How July it done peace?"

(G ): "What??"

(RS): "How July it done?… Fi, boy?"

(G ): "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please."

(RS): "Howbow bkan?"

(G ): "Crisp will be fine."

(RS): "O light. An some DOS?"

(G): "What?"

(RS ): "Dosee. July some DOS?"

(G ): "I feel really bad about this, but I don’t know what ‘Door-C’ means."

(RS): "Mmm……………Toes! toes!…"

(G ): "O, you mean Toasts!….No, do you have something else?"

The worst feeling in the world is going to a Salsa club and knowing that you shouldn’t be there. ‘Cos you’re sick and you could be spreading whatever little left of a god-damn flu virus to everyone. Much to my initial protests, I agreed to go along with friends. But when I got there, I realized it’s time to go home. I wasn’t having fun, I can’t dance, this silly little congestion would put me gasping for oxygen before the song was over, and me being there wasn’t good for anyone.

9:50pm Arrived at LH

10:30pm Left LH

This has got to be the shortest time I’ve spent in a Salsa club on a regular night of dancing. Man, I’d better get well soon! The good news is that heard that loads and loads of Havana Estudio’s beginners went out dancing, even after 3, 4 or 8 classes. That’s gooooooodd!

At least now with that in mind, I can sleep well…. and yoikes!! I’m in bed before 1am, what the…….?!?!?!

After a gazillion hours of sleeping, lots of well wishes to get better by family and friends, I think I’m finally getting above this killer Flu that’s gotten me all nasty-tied up in low-energy-sloshed-land.

Some updates, I had a really good Wed night Salsa class. New intake. Fresh salsa dancers, which I must say, they caught on pretty fast. The question I now have is, will they remember anything in 7 days this coming Wednesday?!?!! Hah, I was very honest with them. Most of the time, for me, I forget after ONE day, and most Beginner classes suffer from this into their 2nd week. To avoid this, spend some time the next day practicing or at least thinking about it. Students who do this don’t forget too easily and they won’t come next week almost having to start from ground ZERO, what a waste! I’ll make the Salsa music CD’s available next week.

Last night, danced some pretty good numbers, including this incredible Salsera from Holland, Griselle. She dances like a super-social dancer, smiling and expressive. Strong, a little "heavy" compared with light Malaysian dancers, but very controlled, smooth, and very very groovy. Bottom line, she had confidence and was dancing her groove. Think both she and her dance partner/boyfriend/dance friend (who knows?!) weren’t used to all this sweating. Told her, in the midst of the loud music blaring, that it was normal to sweat here in KL, but think it didn’t hit home.

A lot of Malaysian girls think that to be sexy means to have model slim-thin body, but laides like Griselle, like a lot of sensuous ladies in Los Angeles, are sexy because of how they move. Very yummy, but the dancing was even yummier, eye-contact during Shines, syncopated movements, we both hit the breaks in the music with a pause/look, or angled pose.

So, this was me, still suffering from the flu, had shortness of breath after every song. This is what it feels like to be old, man, I hope I’m better tonight at Little Havana! I miss dancing non-stop!!

Gotta go run get some black ink cartridge @ 1Utama…

Dry throat, then crazy coughs, then head splits, then the whole body aches from the top of my spine to the ankles. My voice goes, I feel like shit. Get sick maybe once a year or once every two years, lately, but when it hits me, I’m down!

Saw my brother Johan on Wednesday. He’d come back from Thailand on family holiday and brought back an unwanted strong strain of some Thai flu virus. In fact the whole family contracted it. So this is where my bravado comes in, "no lah, I’m still a young guy you know…". About 4 hours later, I was in a foul mood, and already feeling back aches, apparently having fever already. But I don’t think it’s just from him. I was actually fighting something from KL already, but think it was on the verge of hitting me, when the Thai bugs just caused final meltdown!

So, this is me. Pathetic. Sleeping about 14-16 hours a day, Or just as much as I can. Had to cancel a much-awaited last class of Rueda Intermediate - was planning to go with a bang! But had to teach a 9-10pm Improver class 1. The best thing to help this, I must say, is the Nyquil/Dayquil drugs I brought back from California in May. They don’t bring ‘em in, but I have always remembered how Nyquil helped a lot, very quickly, and made me sleep. Dayquil was less powerful and kept the bugs at bay. It’s Friday now. I’d like to say the worst is over, but I think I’ll sleep a little more before saying something so definitive…

Argh, moan, groan, bitch, kick, scream, bleaucckkhhh!

TGIS.. hahaha, I think my life’s so different than most. I’m actually glad it’s Sunday. There used to be a time that I love working all the time, waitaminute, I DO!!! Just dragged myself outta bed. Didn’t set the alarm today. Ok, got long day which starts at 12:30pm and will probably end at 8pm… sigh!

Had bloody full day, prepared for classes from 1pm, assessed a dancer from Amherst, Massachusetts at 2:45pm, taught a class at 3:30pm, entertained enquiries, gave friends/students feedback until 6pm, registered Kayla’s new Flamenco - Open Technique students, did some admin work until 8:30pm, had dinner and rushed to Little Havana.

Tonight was an incredible night of dancing. Got to Little Havana at 9:30pm. The Rueda gang was already dancing together, Shiva Hazel Reena Sherena Zalma Rez and others. God bless DJ Lee U Joe, who was already taking his DJ work full blown, setting up and working in that hell-hole oven room. I plopped a portable fan in front of him, lent him my Mambo CD, and dropped my stuff down in the corner. Had to just sit and let the club sink in.

Did plenty of Rueda while the floor was not packed. Think this was the most Rueda we’ve danced for months. Called some interesting combinations of moves, and had good dancing.

Something in the music tonight got me really going. I was dancing On1, On2, Cuban style, and grooving away. Man, I was in heaven. Probably one of my best nights of dancing since coming back from Los Angeles what 4 weeks ago.

Finally stopped dancing at about 1:45am. Dancing with sports shoes was very comfortable, and the gel really helped me keep my feet rested in the seconds between songs. Not such a good look, and cannot spin, but it kept my energy level for the dancing, leading, and styling. Shiok!!!

Time to sleep, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….. gotta get up tomorrow to clean up the Studio office, finish some admin, and go jogging…

P/S: Got Chin Lai and Hock Siew to follow, and I think they felt some interesting stuff not leading but following and stepping the girls steps. Oh yeah, got to follow today, too. Very very fun… sigh, gotta cool down and get some shut-eye…

I feel like such a poser. Glenn from The Star came by yesterday (Friday 1st July 2005) and spent about 30 mins taking pictures of me. The worst thing is, he made me use all these props, and almost got scratched by Tom, huge mother-bleep of a cat who’s not used to being picked up (actually just not used to getting picked up by me). Oh, not to forget me reading my "favourite book". Asked Zehan to lend me his sound engineering book, the only book I could find at Sharie’s place. I’ve always wanted to have my own Sound Studio, but hey you know, can’t find a "How To Salsa by Havana Estudio" manual handy!

So, this is the news. I was told that I might be a Featured Personality in the Star newspaper.  Tomorrow, Sunday 3rd July. Go get a copy and we’ll all laugh about it together. I’ll just make sure that Sunday, I’m suddenly down with cramps, neausea, and food poisoning or some pathetic male middle-middle age crisis. Totally embarressing, but I hope I don’t look like an idiot! Sheesh…

Thanks to a forced (but much needed) hair-cut, and my first appearance in British India linen collection - hah! - the all-new Salsa Sam!

Ok, fan mails in! Snickers and Snides via SMS only pls, so I can quickly delete them and all trace of the underlining corniness of what just transpired yesterday…

UPDATE: Apparently, it’s only out next Sunday the 10th of July 2005!

2nd UPDATE: Apparently, it’s been pushed ’till later, who knows what they’ll say next!