September 2nd, 2010
Here are two videos from performances in New Mexico. It is fun to watch them in hindsight and see how the dancing follows the music, something that is difficult to enjoy fully alongside all of the musical, physical, and logistical demands of being on tour. ENJOY!
August 24th, 2010
Miles Driven: 5366
Miles Driven by Andy: 5366
Time in the car: 86 hours
Times Carmen did a full pack of the car: 13
Days without driving: 1
States visited: 13
Average driving per day: 6.6 hours
Average sleep per night: 6 hours
Total hours in the car with 5 people: 22
Profit made: decent
Different pieces performed: 30 (27 original arrangements, 3 original pieces)
Total social dance pieces we performed at milongas: 163
Cords in our gear: 24
Other musicians we performed with: 6
Opera singers we performed with: 1
Meals we cooked: 14
Out to eat meals: 9
Meals cooked for us: 6
Meals we assembled in the car: 5
Number of fast food stops: 0
Total avocados eaten: 13 (plus all the guacamole we ate in restaurants)
Bowls of oatmeal eaten: 22
Meals eaten with green chilies: 4
Bags of chilies purchases: 3 dried, 1 fresh
Number of coffees: uncountable
Different kinds of beer consumed: 15
Bottles of wine: 2
Home stays: 5
Camping nights: 5
Hotel stays: 2 nights at Hotel Andaluz
Highest point: 11,100 feet near Loveland Pass
Lowest point: Pacific Ocean
Highest temperature: 106 degrees in Yuma, Arizona
Lowest temperature: 45 degrees in Golden Gate Canyon State Park, CO
State parks visited: 5
Oceanside picnics: 1
Pika sightings: 1
Live skunk sightings: 3
Miles hiked: 18
Pillows Dave lost: 2
Times Luke changed his clothes in public behind the car: 4
Monkeys on horses: 1
Chilies eaten raw in car: 10
Awards:
Best Out to Eat: Church St. Café; Albuquerque, NM
Best Beer: Cali-Belgique on tap(!) from Stone Brewery (a must stop for beer lovers!!)
Best Performance: Hotel Andaluz; Albuquerque, NM
Most Enthusiastic Crowd: Cowboy Monkey; Champaign, IL
Best Attendance: Mercury Café; Denver, CO
Most Unique Venue: Candlelight Bar; Ventura, CA
Best Place to Dance, Drink, and Play Music on Sunday: Green Street Social Club, Salt Lake City
Warmest Crowd: Eagles Club; Glenwood Springs, CO
Worst Traffic: Driving north to south through L.A. at 11am on a Wednesday
Most Packed Venue: Ciao Bella; San Diego, CA
Most Picturesque Venue: Corrales Mission Church; Corrales, NM
Best View From the Car: PCH into Malibu tied with the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson overlooking the city
Best Coffee: Mercury Café Lattes in Denver, CO
August 24th, 2010
One of the best parts of the tour was performing original tango music for dancing. Here is recording we captured of Carmen’s composition Cumparsita Cats performed live in San Diego. Click on the bottom left of the score to turn the pages along with the music!
Listen to the live recording of Cumparsita Cats
August 23rd, 2010
Luke said that he ate better “roughing it” on the tour than he does at home. Between our own car and camp cooking and home stays we were graced with delicious food for the past two weeks.
We certainly know musicians who include a detailed description of food requirements in their performance agreements, however this tour’s sustenance rode on the generosity of many hosts and hostesses who saw that we are well taken care of; many of them who got up early to make us full breakfasts by 8am.
Jackie in Champaign
veggie egg casserole, fresh homemade bread, whole wheat pancakes, fruit salad, polish sausage, bacon, juice, tea, coffee
Cheryl in Glenwood Springs (afternoon snack)
whole roasted chicken with good bread, homemade corkscrew pasta with kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and Parmesan, cranberry San Pellegrino spritzers on ice
Leslie in Glenwood Springs
homemade biscuits and gravy, fresh strawberries, blackberries and raspberries with honey Greek yogurt, coffee — she also made us 7 sandwiches for the road with provolone smoked turkey, proscuitto, salami, and roast beef!
Renne in Salt Lake (who woke up with us at 5:30am!)
cereal with soy milk, coffee, tea, fruit, juice, toast with good hummus for Andy (to prepare him for the drive to L.A)
Stephen in Ventura
two broccoli, zucchini green onion frittatas with feta (made lovingly in cast iron), homemade granola (!) with yogurt and fresh peaches, killer oolong tea
Gabi and Linda in San Diego
fresh baked croissants with homemade dulce de leche(!) and coffee
Erskine and Hotel Andaluz
Lunch at the Lucia (4 start restaurant in the hotel!)
And for eating meals in the car…
With five of us crammed in the car, the seven hour drive from San Diego to the mountains outside Tucson went surprisingly well. One of the highlights was coordinating and preparing a car lunch buffet of baguette slices, longhorn cheese, guacamole, and kalamata olives. There is nothing quite like thinly slicing a baguette with a buck knife with three in the back seat.
And here is another recipe from the trip made from ingredients we found quickly in a Tucson grocery store.
Zona Cactus Beans
The Beans
1. Roast the following on the fire: 1 red bell pepper, 1 head of garlic, 4 cherry bomb peppers, 4 ears of corn, 2 tomatoes
2. Chop everything and put in a cast iron pan on the fire with 1 tsp cumin, 3 TBS olive oil, and 1 can of nopalitos (rinsed)
The Tortillas
1. 1 cup each masa and whole wheat flour mixed with 1 1/4 cup water. Include 1tsp each of coriander and cumin powder in dough before pressing them on the tortilla press and then roasting them on the fire.
We ate the tortillas and beans with homemade guacamole (made by the guac-master Avik) a wheel of queso fresco, Greek yogurt, radish sprouts, canned salsa verde and chips.
We washed it down with some Kilt Lifter Ale, a scotch style ale from Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe, Arizona.
