update, November fourth, 2010

D Voted

A few of you out there may not be happy about the development of Hickenlooper for Governor, but we are, for at least one reason: we've watched Hickenlooper as Mayor bend over backwards for the arts scene in Denver and expect to see more of the same at the state level. We've met John and he is a sincere lover of art, a geek even. For that we are grateful. We should mention that the awesome poster Matt Dougherty did for the Hickenlooper Rally at the D Note was picked up and used by his campaign. So it all comes around.

Our first pertinent piece of news is that tonight, Thursday, Nov 4, at 9pm we have a bluegrass jam lead by the great Martin Gilmore. If you are a picker, or even just a bluegrass lover, then please come and help us get it started. If it goes well it will become a regular event. And please forward this e-mail to any pickers you know that might be interested! We would love to help further foster this community.

And speaking of bluegrass, Nov. 20th we have Oakhurst headlining the D Note second annual Beard & Mustache Showdown. Yeehaw. We hope you have started working on your design. $20 to enter contest, proceeds go to Boys and Girls Club of Denver. And we've lined up some very sweet prizes too.

This Friday night at 5pm we have an art opening for Rachel of Hammersteelarts.com for our part in the Olde Town Art Walk. We really dig her stuff and some of will be on hand for Beard and Mustache prizes too. Kenny Lee Young will play his very sweet style of acoustic soul on the guitar. Free. At 7pm we have a new jazz band called Tabernash Jazz for you jazz lovers. $5. At 8:30pm Friday we have a fundraiser for Intercambios De Comunidades 3rd Annual Night of Rhythm, featuring DJ Diablo and Los Cheesies. There will also be a silent auction. This is a great organization and we're proud to host it at the D Note. $15.

Also, if you like latin music, or just dancing in general, be sure to come out next Friday night, Nov. 12 at 10pm, for the premier of DJ Chonz residency at the D Note on Friday nights. Chonz is the drivetime DJ on KS 107.5, and we're thrilled to have him come spin his special mix of R&B, hip hop, latin, reggaeton, etc. No cover for the ladies, so start calling up your girlfriends now please. Gonna get low low low low low.

Saturday we have Rene Heredia and his Flamenco troupe back at the D Note at 6:30p. This is Rene's second time to the D Note and his troupe was very well received last time. Rene is a master and his dancers are beautiful. Killer pizza and Flamenco, perfect date night. Come early for a seat. $15

Then at 9pm we have some "urban soul" music Saturday night with the 7th anniversary of the Casuals Car Crew, featuring music by The Casuals. $3.

Reminder that we now have blues swing dance lessons every Wednesday at 7pm for only $5. Then the Clamdaddys play their legendary blues music for free afterwards. Your argument is invalid.

So much to do,

D one

Extra Credit: We've been reading a lot of Elizabeth Bishop lately and so we will include a poem by her we just discovered, to our delight, yesterday. Though written half a century ago, we can't help but hear a darker echo of the recent oil spill.


The Fish

I caught a tremendous fish
and held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of his mouth.
He didn't fight.
He hadn't fought at all.
He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable
and homely. Here and there
his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost through age.
He was speckled and barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white sea-lice,
and underneath two or three
rags of green weed hung down.
While his gills were breathing in
the terrible oxygen
--the frightening gills,
fresh and crisp with blood,
that can cut so badly--
I thought of the coarse white flesh
packed in like feathers,
the big bones and the little bones,
the dramatic reds and blacks
of his shiny entrails,
and the pink swim-bladder
like a big peony.
I looked into his eyes
which were far larger than mine
but shallower, and yellowed,
the irises backed and packed
with tarnished tinfoil
seen through the lenses
of old scratched isinglass.
They shifted a little, but not
to return my stare.
--It was more like the tipping
of an object toward the light.
I admired his sullen face,
the mechanism of his jaw,
and then I saw
that from his lower lip
--if you could call it a lip
grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces of fish-line,
or four and a wire leader
with the swivel still attached,
with all their five big hooks
grown firmly in his mouth.
A green line, frayed at the end
where he broke it, two heavier lines,
and a fine black thread
still crimped from the strain and snap
when it broke and he got away.
Like medals with their ribbons
frayed and wavering,
a five-haired beard of wisdom
trailing from his aching jaw.
I stared and stared
and victory filled up
the little rented boat,
from the pool of bilge
where oil had spread a rainbow
around the rusted engine
to the bailer rusted orange,
the sun-cracked thwarts,
the oarlocks on their strings,
the gunnels--until everything
was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go.