The following post has been brought to you by the lovely and talented (and oh-so-humble) Kikita. About 10 years ago, when I was an adorable teenager who didn't remember much of the Spanish she'd spoken as a child, I saw the movie "Dance with Me." It was magical. There was a beautiful Puerto Rican guy (Chayanne) who was playing ...
Music
Magical Summer Moments
Sunday, September 6, 1970. My very first concert. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Their opening act was Little Stevie Wonder who had just had a big hit with "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." This was my very first concert. I found the ticket tucked away in my high school photo album. Thirty-nine years ago ...
My Redemption Song
This post was written by Kikita. A few months ago I received an email in my inbox and all it had was a picture attached.This picture: Did I notice "El Gran Combo" (a group that, as a salsera, I have grown to love)? Of course not.I only had eyes for Willy.Immediately, I send Mami an email. There was no question as to whether we were ...
Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos or What Cuban Music Heaven Looks Like
We live about an hour south of Los Angeles. (That's how you calculate distances here in Southern California; by how long it takes you in traffic to get from one place to another.) This is a wonderful thing because that means that we can go see shows in L.A. but not have to live there. See what I mean? Win-win. ;-) And when summer begins the ...
Let the Cuban Festivals Begin!
Hola, hola, Coca-Cola!Kikita here, reporting live from . . . ok, not live. But here comes the full report! This may get a bit convoluted, but it will still be fun, I promise! Last Sunday, April 19th, a new Cuban Festival was being held in downtown LA. Of course I had to be there.Mami & Dad were excited to go, but I knew they would probably get ...
Pure Imagination
This was a magical weekend for my son, Jonathan (the 13 year old). He actually became Willy Wonka. Our homeschool drama group put on the play/musical Willy Wonka Jr. No, seriously. He wore the purple coat and the trademark top hat in a remarkably comfortable manner. He wielded the glass-top cane as if he had been doing it all his young ...
Rockin’ the house
So, Adam had a few of his buddies over the other night to play Rock Band. The big selling point (besides "My mom will feed everyone") was.... "My mom will sooo kick butt er...do well... on vocals!" And so they came and we played and took turns drumming and playing guitars and vocalizing. Out in the backyard, of course, with the ...
I *heart* Willy
My son, Jonathan will be playing the title character in his school play, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Opening night is two weeks away which means it's crunch time for us and everyone here at Chez Darby has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make the boy look good. Which is how I found myself in the humiliating and ...
The Walking Legend
I know you've missed me . . . so I'm taking time out of my busy schedule to share with you.Hi Everyone! It's Kikita! Sometime in November I was trying to come up with a great Christmas song for the video and stumbled across a John Legend song. This reminded me of how much I liked him, so I jumped on ticketmaster and (Jesus must ...
Hay que lio!
I'm bossy.I won't deny it.But I think I have some good ideas and being bossy helps get my people to cooperate. ;-) And I'm cognizant most of the year that we will eventually be putting together a video to entertain the family at Christmas. So when there's any kind of reunion (like this one in Miami this year), I ...
