So I am going to be getting a satellite radio for Christmas and I was hoping that you all could offier a little insight on the better choice for Salsa. I have heard a little of both because at different times, I have had DishNetwork and DirecTV satellite TV services which include Sirius and XM respectively. I think they are both pretty good. They both have their good and not so good points.

I like that Sirius has some New York City flavor to it because that is where it is based out of. They have catchy little phrases that a lot of the NY stations use. I don’t like that it mixes reggaeton with salsa, merengue and bachata, and more recently made it the primary style of music. I like Reggaeton somewhat but it is still fairly new as far as genres go and it is too different than the aforementioned genres. XM separates them into two different channels.

As for XM, I like that they have a few more latin channels for other genres. They don’t have as many of the corny one-liner ads but again, I kind of like those

Right now, I have XM through my dish provider so I am leaning a little more toward Sirius so that I can have both but I’d love to see what you all think.

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Well, in order to be fair to lovers of some other Latin genres that we cater to, I thought it would be a good idea to a couple of other 2006 reviews. Today, we have Merengue as the genre of choice. Here are some of the hits from this year that I have compiled. Remember, I have tried to keep them as chronologically true as possible but I am going from memory. Feel free to help with some suggestions. Read the rest of this entry »

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So, I’ve added a little feature on the site to display songs that contain either a famous lyric/quote or have elicited some type of emotional response from me or people I know. So far, I’ve only been able to think of a few so perhaps you can help out with a quote or lyric from your favorite songs. As I mentioned, it could be something that made you think, “Wow! That was pretty intense!” or a phrase that when you hear it, you and probably everyone around, starts to sing it. One of the ones I used which is a perfect example of this is when you hear the conga and bongos playing quietly and then you hear Ruben Blades start to sing “Por la esquina de viejo barrio lo vi pasar…con el tumbao’ que tienen los guapos al caminar”. I don’t know too many people that don’t start singing after that line. If you can, try to include the performing artist and/or the original author. I’m sure there are some good ones out there that I am not thinking of. Happy singing!!Â

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A couple of weeks ago I posted an article about being thankful for what we have. Let us not forget about the idea of giving as well as thanking. Today I saw that my friend Jason posted the following about a little girl who was recently diagnosed with Bilateral Wilms Disease (which is cancer in both kidneys). Jason is a person I know to be a man of integrity, hard work (as demonstrated by the fact that he built his house with his own two hands, and of course a little bit of help from his family, but not much :)), a caring dad and husband…just an all around nice guy. So the fact that he wants to help this family is why I am doing this.  Jason has stated in his blog that his goal was to get one person to help this family. Another nice gentlemen named Ed, who I used to work for and am friends with (in fact he helped me build my site), posted his own blog saying that he will be that one person. What a great gift for this time of caring and family.

The goal here is no different folks. If we can get at least one person to make a donation, it would be a huge lift for this family in need. If you host a bog, perhaps you can join in by posting this blog or linking to this one or one of the others on this post. Read the rest of this entry »

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So here are some of my picks for good salsa for 2006. These are more in chronological order starting with the older songs and ending with the newer ones. Feel free to sound off on any that you liked or that I may have missed. Here they are… Read the rest of this entry »

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This year I have much to be thankful for. I have a new member in my family…Little Isabella Skye :) Latin Rhythmz is growing along with the Salsa community here is Des Moines. We have had record numbers of people attending events where LR is playing the music. The parties at the Hotel Fort Des Moines and Keysters keep getting better and better. Read the rest of this entry »

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