March/April 2005 Issue

Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge

<p>Charanga Cakewalk.<i>Triloka</i>

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Accordionist and keyboardist Michael Ramos mixes ingredients like a four-star chef. His mesmerizing Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge begins with a Latin base, but folds in all manner of tasty tangents: “Mexicanos” pairs a Santana beat and pumping organ in the Booker T. style; the playful “Carmela” could be a confection of the goofy lounge-pop master Esquivel. If “Romanticos Desperádos” has the oversweet aftertaste of ’50s pop, Ramos serves up more challenging fare elsewhere. The bouncy “Belleza” marinates a dance groove in the textures of dub reggae. Sneaky and surreal, Charanga Cakewalk serves up comfort food that never lets you get too comfortable.

 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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