Lonely greaseball

Ilya was hanging out with Jimmy Bosch all day, sightseeing in Kiev.

And all I had to do today (besides work) was get on the plane.

Instead I waited 5 hours at the airport before they sent me back home. Broken plane.

And here I am in my house eating McDonalds before I fall asleep on the couch.

Let's hope that's the only hiccup this weekend.

Korrespondent.net

Apparently it's a big deal that we're in this.

We're also in some Ukrainian Diaspora news site, that's funny (and cool, of course).

People are calling Ilya every 15 minutes or less to get info, etc.

Anya, our assistant, is helping us constantly.

I'm doing a full day's work, and still I managed to get my hair done, buy a few last-minute things (like options of clothes for Ilya cuz apparently he likes nothing in Kiev) before I leave and still I have to work more now when I finish doing Dislocados work.

And people keep calling and wanting us.

This is amazing... I'm getting really excited, we're starting to realize our dream within this project...

And a few TV channels already want interviews with us.

"We're gonna make it after alllll..."

Opening band for Jimmy Bosch concert!

Here I'm having problems with the order of pictures again... forgive me, guys.

Anyway, we have an exciting announcement! We finalized the opening band for our concert with Jimmy Bosch on January 23, 2010! I'm super excited because they were my first choice: I wanted a group of musicians that are also trying to promote international live music, and quite frankly, I was just unsure that we'd be able to get them because they're quite good to be *just* an opening band for us. But, we wanted this concert to be of the highest caliber, and so I'm really excited for our audience that they'll be able to see these guys at the event!

The band is called PARADUSH, a pair of souls, as they tell me, but it also sounds like a Portuguese word kind of if you say it, which is appropriate because they play a lot of music based on Brazilian rhythms as well as in Portuguese, but from what I understand, they also sing in English, Ukrainian, etc, so it's a really nice mix of everything.

I'll post some more official information when I get it from them, but I wanted to just say how excited I am!

Also newly announced to be working with us is Adrian Garcia! He will be the MC of the concert, and I'm super excited, because he unites all these cultures on a daily basis - himself being Cuban-Ukrainian. Adrian also has his own music career which you can check out on his website, so we're extra excited to have him support us like this.

6 days 'til JB concert... insane...

Cheers to our sponsors!

What's On Kyiv came through and printed a full page article about Ilya, the band, and the event, along with our event poster on another page.

Thanks to Neil and Tatiyana from What's On - the article and photo look great, and I hear we're already getting calls inquiring about the event! Success!

Man, wouldn't it be cooooool if we sold out? Tres cool...

Check out the online version here (even though it's prettier in print). ;)

Ironic experience with Jimmy Bosch

So, it's Bosch T-9 and I'm getting closer and closer to *****ing my pants. ;) In all seriousness, we're quite excited. In fact, before anything crazy happens, I tend to get very calm, and that's kind of where I'm at now.

In fact, I was so much the "calm before the storm" that when I called JB yesterday to finalize the last plans, I was trying to not be hyper and I think I put him to sleep... haha.

But there was one ridiculous part of the conversation. Jimmy, as the great man that he is, wanted to let me know that people already know about us. Now, the more times I tell the story, the more it could be like the fishing story, where you keep exaggerating the size of the fish you caught, but I'm pretty sure this is how it went:

JB: "By the way, did you know that you guys are well known?"

KP: "Really, what do you mean?"

JB: "When I was in Cali, Colombia, I said that I was going to Ukraine and people were asking me if I was going to play with Dislocados. So, they know you down there. They even have your music."

Now, when I was re-telling this to Ilya, the irony suddenly dawned on me. JIMMY BOSCH was telling ME, Karolina, that DISLOCADOS is well known.

Jimmy Bosch.

It reminded me of this Seinfeld scene (minus the anger and the dumping, but my enthusiasm for the irony was pretty much similar to Elaine's here):

Gotta love JB. I'll try to keep up with the blog a bit more if I can for the days leading up to the concert cuz I think it'll be interesting to keep track of this ridiculous experience. I already told my facebook friends, the next stop for me is dancing on Mars in my underwear.

Preparing for JB

I was gonna put this at the end of the blog as a "by the way", but when I uploaded the pic, it wouldn't move to the bottom of the blog, so I'm starting with it. So, a couple of weeks ago, I was searching around for different pics of our guys, and I found this pic of Sergey (2nd trumpet/flugelhorn) playing with Gogol Bordello! (That's him, smoking and playing, haha). Awesome.

Anyway, back to the normal post. Since we're all quiet, you might think that nothing much is going on as we're preparing for JB, but you be wrong... That's exactly why I'm not writing.

First of all, let me say that Jessie Kawata is an amazing designer and the amount of stupid things that have been going on with the poster are annoying the hell out of me, as with her. As you can see at the top of this page, the poster is done, but someone keeps whining about something or stopping the process for some reason or another and we're just trying to get them printed already... Plus, we wanted to paste them around the city, but apparently that costs a lot more than we were prepared for, and since it's wintertime, we figure that maybe people won't be walking outside so much anyway...? We've decided to put our money into more targetted promotional media.

Secondly, we're trying to find an opening act. Who knew it would take this long... We have to make the exact right decision for us, and also make sure that the people we invite feel like it's a good fit for them too. And for some reason, it's been difficult for Ilya and I to come to a perfect decision and find the right act. And, it's cutting it close...

Jimmy and Ilya have finally agreed on a setlist, which is quite exciting, and it also enables us to start preparing the right songs, rather than just prepare in general. In that, it's hard for me because I'm away from the band, so I have to be disciplined enough to rehearse my voice in general, practice those songs and exactly the feeling I want for them (I came up with some new ideas and variations in some of our old stuff), to practice the Cuban guiro which is a new instrument for me and I'm very conscious that I have to find the right groove, practice the Puerto Rican guiro which our amazing friends from Tres Panderos sent me, figure out the new coro arrangements with Ilya (because now Andrey is singing with us), practice my movements onstage, actually plan with Lesya how some songs will look visually, especially practice the JB songs so he'll be pleased with them, and most of all, practice my rhythm while singing - which is a daily feat for me. And that's just me. Can you imagine what Ilya has to do as a bandleader?

Two other people we have to find that are crucial - one is video crew, since we're planning to record the whole concert live. Our good friend Adrian Garcia gave us a good tip, and otherwise, I've got some backup crew from Poland that could eventually come. And, the last thing is to find the right MC........ and so far we're more behind with that than with the opening band. Because that's the trick. We can easily find "any" MC and "any" band, but it's about finding the *right* ones.

And of course, we always welcome more money. I just watched Julie & Julia today as I was making promotional stuff for the concert, and she got people to send her stuff by the sole act of writing a blog. Well, in case anyone has any spare money that they have no idea how to spend, you are welcome to send it our way. I assure you, it won't go to waste. ;) hehe

Dislocados is out of work for one week while Caribbean Club takes a break from live music for the first weekend of 2010, so there's more time for practicing and a bit less time for earning a living.

So, here I am, practicing and practicing. In fact, 24hr/day connected Ilya isn't even ever online anymore because he's practicing all the time. We're going into lockdown mode here.

Meanwhile, EVERYONE is telling us they want to go to this concert, but they all want to wait to buy their tickets, which is making me really nervous. And, we did what I thought you should do - make the tickets more expensive at the door than beforehand, and make the salsa school dance teachers push the tickets on their students, but still ppl are being lazy. That's weird, right? What can I do? Any ideas? I could use some audience participation here like on Julie & Julia... :P ;)

Ok that's it for me now. I have to record my voice and send some stuff to Lesya that I made up that we'll be doing at the concert. I'm out, see you in a bit.~

Great review

Big thanks goes out to Azucar y Candela for doing this great review of our album! Check it out here.

In other news, we're just working really hard for this Jimmy Bosch concert... so much stuff to prepare... But it's going to be worth it. I can't believe we've got like 15 people working full or part time on this and we still have new stuff to do every day... but it's kind of fun. And it will definitely be worth it.

Official ads and announcements go out in December. Keep your ears and eyes open...

In yet more news, my wooden guiro stick - my favorite one, the white one doesn't have enough friction for me - is finally starting to split... :( Also, I didn't realize how hard it is to find a Puerto Rican guiro anywhere outside of Puerto Rico. I can't even find it online to order (or at least a place that will ship to Poland). Boo.

Can I blog about this?

So it's November 9, 2009, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of democracy sweeping through Central and Eastern Europe.

As the first original salsa band to come out of the former Soviet Union, we're proud to remember this day, even though quite a few band members (myself not included) were under 5 years old at the time.

At the same time, we're dealing with some frustration. And, unfortunately, I'm even scared to blog about this, which is a shame that I'm scared to exercise some free speech while we say we've come so far. So, before I go on, let me just say that I, Karolina Patocki, am taking this on myself, and am not expressing the views of any other band member in particular.

Presidential elections are coming up in Ukraine, and right when the campaign opened, a mass hysteria started about swine flu in the country. It is true that there are many people sick, but first of all, it is from all flus and respiratory illnesses, and as far as I understand, the statistics this year are not dissimilar to any other year.

Dislocados is organizing the biggest event of our lifetime as a band, and one of the biggest multicultural concerts to this date in Ukraine, intending to open the country up to embrace other cultures and people of different backgrounds working together to enjoy their common passion, regardless of their background.

And yet now there's a talk about a state of emergency in the country, possibly cancelling the upcoming elections for the foreseeable future.

And we are frustrated. We're working for a better Ukraine, for a better unity of international culture in these 20 years of freedom...

Well, we refuse to give in. The show must go on. We're going on with the concert on the planned date of January 23rd. We believe that it will happen and it will be a success, and we ask all Ukrainians to join us.

And as we close with the words of our Plena Pa' Tontos, now you understand why we sing:

A mi me cansa la politica

La economia, la religion

Quiero cantar en armonia

Porque la plena (y nuestra salsa dura) celebra mi pasion.

I'm tired of politics

Of economics, of religion

I want to sing in harmony

Because the plena (and our salsa dura) celebrates my passion.

Dislocados with JIMMY BOSCH!!! Jan 23, 2010

Well, we've been quiet for a while because we've been organizing our launch in Kiev (set for Jan 23, 2010), but we haven't been able to talk about it yet, but... we're super excited.

First, Andy Harlow writes the liner notes for our CD. And now, Jimmy Bosch is agreeing to come play with us at our CD release party in Kiev!!!

We're going bananas with excitement. I think JB is one of the only musicians that actually every single member in the band likes. (For other artists, we have varying opinions, which of course keeps things interesting.) He's the real symbol of salsa dura these days, and we're so happy to partner with him to promote international hard salsa!

Everyone is going mad. For me and Ilya this is the best of the best at this point for us. Now our task is to make a KILLER event.

But even I saw Sergey (2nd trumpet & flugelhorn) in our Lvov concert about a week ago, and he couldn't stop giggling like a schoolgirl. I hope Jimmy gives him a big wet kiss when he sees him, haha, that'll be it for him, he'll be set for life.

It's really important for me and Ilya that we use this event to broaden our audience in Ukraine. This is so that Ukrainians can really start respecting what they have in their country as much as outsiders do. We are

really trying to open up Ukraine culturally, and so we don't want only the regular dancers to come, although we LOVE it when they do. We of course want to take advantage of the exhibition of real live salsa dura to show the Ukrainian dancers that it's the best music to dance to (their repertoire is still a bit limited, although growing every day).

We also want to take the opportunity to show Ukrainian musicians that salsa offers a lot of satisfaction technically, artistically, musically... and to encourage opening cultural horizons in music.

As well, we really want international representatives to show up to support us, because we know the Americans, French, Germans, Canadians, et al, have all at some point expressed interest in investing in Ukraine not only financially but culturally. But, this is their chance to participate in a historic cultural event.

This is a huge deal. There has never been an event like this in Kiev. That's why we have to make it good now.

In other news, our beloved bandleader, Ilya Yeresko, just recently went to Yalta where he arranged the music for a certain portion of a new huge film that's being recorded there. I think they're doing it in Russian, it's called "Алые Паруса" ("Scarlet Sails"), but we're super proud that people are starting to recognize his talents. He recorded the track with our old friend Susana, who has recently gained fame as Jamala, the new Ukrainian pop sensation.

Let's hope "film composer" will add itself more and more to his resume. Congrats, Ilya!

I also mentioned we went to Lvov together. I can't believe I forgot to post news about that. It was super fun - our first time in Western Ukraine, a

nd the audience was great! We had a few technical issues (ahem) but in the end, the crowd kept their energy, and we're super happy they did. We had a great time, and I'm especially lucky because I

was able to come down for that (as I'm now living in Poland for a while).

Ok, I think that's all the news for now. Like I said, this is just when it starts for me an

d Ilya in terms of organization, and the whole band in terms of preparation, but we're really hoping we can create a valuable event to enrich Ukraine's musical landscape even further.