Thursday, April 28, 2011

weekend update 4/28/11

D Bonair,


Last weekend at D Note we were treated to Spanish guitar and dance, an 18 piece Gamelan orchestra with dancers, world class blues violin, a sitar concert and a 10 piece salsa band. It was like a master class in world music, which is pretty remarkable when you consider we are located a thousand or so miles from the nearest ocean!

This Friday night we would love to have featured some proper English music for the royal nuptials of William and Kate, but we didn't think that far ahead. We are however doing a benefit, which seems to be in the spirit of the occasion, as Prince William, like his mother, seems to be a very charitable guy. The benefit, which starts at 7p, is for HIV Care Link w/ music by Austin Collins. $5-$10 suggested donation. Austin's music is akin to REM and early Replacements.

After the benefit, at 9p, we have local favorites Stonebraker and Wonderlic. Whole lotta love. $5.

Saturday at 4pm is a ballroom dance lesson followed by the old school big band jazz of Serenade In Blue at 5pm. $10 covers lesson and band.

We have another benefit on Saturday night, this one for The Denver Voice, an organization that helps the homeless (one of Prince William's main concerns, just saying). This show will have some wonderfully unique music by The Coyote Poets and The Skeleton Key Orchestra, both in the Gypsy Americana World Music vein. $5.

Sunday morning we have yoga with the fantastic teacher Nicky Viera and live meditative music by Melissa Ivey and Adam DeGraff, starting 10am. After yoga, at 11:30p, we have the third installment of Sunday (music) School (House/techno) $5 adults, kids free. This is perfect for you, if you used to be an all night raver, but now have kids.

That's now,

D Bone

Extra Credit: Here's an abridged version of a wedding poem (properly called an Epithalamion) by English poet Tennyson, for you know who. O heart, are you great enough for love?


Marriage Morning

Light, so low in the vale
You flash and lighten afar,
For this is the golden morning of love,
And you are his morning star.

Heart, are you great enough
For a love that never tires?
O heart, are you great enough for love?
I have heard of thorns and briers.

Over the thorns and briers,
Over the meadows and stiles,
Over the world to the end of it
Flash of a million miles.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Weekend update 4/21/11

D spectacled

This weekend the D Note will be taking vacations to Spain and Bali, at least musically. It is strange how music seems to carry the spirit of a place. Spanish flamenco music is an excellent example. Flamenco guitar master Rene Heredia and several dancers will present a show this Friday at 7pm. $20 (subtract airfare to Spain). Then Saturday at 4pm we have our first D Note World Family Music Concert w/ Tunas Mekar, a group of 16 musicians that play a very unique style of music from Bali called Gamelan. $10adults/kids free (subtract airfare to Bali.)

Of course we will also feature some great American music this weekend too. Are the blues considered American? The form goes back to Africa, but it has certainly taken on a certain sound here. Lionel Young, who once played the D Note every Friday night, has recently won the 2011 International Blues Contest in Memphis. Lionel is the only person to ever win both the solo and band competition. We've always known he is one of the most phenomenal musicians in the world and we are proud to see him receive such esteem. The Lionel Young Band will be celebrating their victory Saturday night with a show at the D Note. We missed Lionel and can't wait to have him back in the house. Opening up for Lionel Young Band at 7:30p is A New Brain For Arnie, a new band led by Kristina Ingham. This band lit us up last time they played the D Note. It is an odd but wonderful combination of R&B and classic rock, w/ a dash of hip hop. You kind of have to hear it. The band name, btw, is a line from the movie "What's Eating Gilbert Grape". $8

On Friday night after flamenco we have a couple of cool new bands from Boulder, Mach-Zender (alt country) and Tommy And The Tangerines (classic rock? Listen to the song "Friends Today" on their Facebook to get a feel for this unique band). $5. The bands have commandeered a Banjo Billy Boulder Tour bus for this show so if you live in Boulder and are interested let us know. $20 for the ride (includes show and beverages).

There is a cool indie show next Tuesday with Lady Parts and Ft. Wilson Riot (from Minnesota). Doo Crowder (of Pee Pee) opens the show at 7p. Doo is one of the best songwriters in Denver (listen to the song "Jaroline" here on Pee Pee Myspace page). Fort Wilson Riot was recently signed to Thom Yorks tbd label!. $5

Ever,

D spencible

Extra Credit: Last week we featured a thought provoking poem considering the idea of being "blessed" and "cursed". This week we'll present a poem that takes this idea a step further. This one is by Russian poet Osip Mandelstam. Beautifully translated by Christian Wiman.


Casino

Pointless any happiness that happens by plan:
To live in nature is to suffer luck.
Thus blessed, thus cursed, I am myself again,
Empty-tipsy, drinking to the lees my lack.

Wind-tousled cloud, cloud-tousled chance,
Deep in the unseen an anchor drops, and clings.
O my lilting, my light-sheer, my linen existence:
As of another nothing floating over things.

I like the cakelike casino on the dunes,
And how the strict fingers of skeletal light
Come alive on the baize, and the view, vast as mist.

I like the tone of green that oceans in,
And the tight rosebuds of wine that bloom in the mind,
And the towering, scouring seagull, in whose eyes nothing is lost.

(1912)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

D Note weekend update 4/14/11

D finest,

Did you know only one of the original seven wonders of the world has survived? The Great Pyramid of Giza. The rest are all gone. Makes you think. But even stranger perhaps is that the idea of "seven wonders of the world" has survived. The idea was originally based on guidebooks used by Hellenic sight seers around the Mediterranean. The number seven, to the Greeks, represented perfection and plenty. The idea stuck and people still, for some reason, try to get their lists of wonders down to the magic number seven. You can see a few of these lists on Wikipedia. They are interesting for sure, but we should make up our own. We'd have to list D Note's salsa night as a wonder. And also the Clamdaddys. Five more anyone?

As for the news...

Tonight, Thursday, April 14, and every Thursday, we have Geeks Who Drink Trivia. Geeks Who Drink Trivia was started by our friend John Dicker. It has become so successful in Colorado that John is taking it national and doing very well for himself. Go John! It does make for a very entertaining night and we laugh more on Thursdays than we ever have at any comedy club. After trivia Martin Gilmore (another nominee for wonder of the world) holds a bluegrass picking circle.

This Friday we have Ryan Macpherson at 5pm for Free Friday Afternoon Concert, then Dave and Judy Edwards at 7pm, Bottom Feeders (blues rock) at 8:30pm and In Due Time (funk/ska) at 10:30p. $5.

Saturday we have Music Train Family Concert at 4pm featuring Beatles Revival. $7 adults/ $3 kids.

At 7pm Saturday we have a benefit for Colorado Special Olympics w/ R.I.C.E., The Jonglare, Suicide By Proxy, The Killwatch $5-$10 suggested donation.

Then at 9:30p Saturday we have another benefit, this one for Japenese Earthquake/Tsunami relief via Doctors Without Borders. D.A.R.C. (Denver Art Rock Collective) is putting this one together and the show will feature Amphibious Jones, The Mourning Sickness and The Inactivists. Get weird and do good, that's the motto. $5-$10 suggested donation.

Sunday morning we are having a special session of our yoga w/ live meditation music. The Larson brothers (from Something Underground) will join Melissa Ivey and Adam DeGraff for the music and Crystal Larson will be teaching the yoga. 10am. Donations welcome and will go this time toward Chandra House.

Next Friday we have a flamenco show with Rene Heredia at 7pm. We have a family world music show featuring a 16 piece Balinese Gamelan Orchestra at 4pm next Saturday. And 8p next Saturday we are proud to announce the return of International Blues Challenge winners of 2011, The Lionel Young Band (another of the seven wonders.)

Hope to see you all soon,

D Finer


Extra Credit: There was a fantastic poem in the New Yorker last week by Carl Dennis that really made us think. We'll copy here for you, word by word.

New Year's Eve

However busy you are, you should still reserve
One evening a year for thinking about your double,
The man who took the curve on Conway Road
Too fast, given the icy patches that night,
But no faster than you did; the man whose car
When it slid through the shoulder
Happened to strike a girl walking alone
From a neighbor's party to her parent's farm,
While your car struck nothing more notable
Than a snowbank.

One evening for recalling how soon you transformed
Your accident into a comic tale
Told first at a body shop, for comparing
That hour of pleasure with his hour of pain
At the house of the stricken parents, and his many
Long afternoons at the Lutheran graveyard.

If nobody blames you for assuming your luck
Has something to do with your character,
Don't blame him for assuming that his misfortune
Is somehow deserved, that justice would be undone
If his extra grief was balanced later
By a portion of extra joy.

Lucky you, whose personal faith has widened
To include an angel assigned to protect you
From the usual outcome of heedless moments.
But this evening consider the angel he lives with,
The stern enforcer who drives the sinners
Out of the garden with a flaming sword
And locks the gate.

Friday, April 8, 2011

weekend update 4/8/11

D bops,

Lots of cool stuff happening this weekend, but first an addendum to the story of the six year old getting up and rocking out on stage that we mentioned last week. We received the following e-mail in response: "I would like to proudly identify the 6 year old girl from Tuesday night. She is Jane Rebecca Poole, our granddaughter. I was there Tue to support Laurie and her daughter. I met my daughter Christina there along with Jane. In Jan 2010 Jane was diagnosed with Leukemia and has undergone chemotherapy ever since. She will require chemo for another year or more. Her prognosis is great and she is very positive. Last summer she did a lemonade stand to help pay for some of her medical bills. She made it on Fox national news. Jane has been coming to the D-note since birth. Mainly for the Clamdaddys on Weds. When she was released from the hospital the first time in Jan 2010, she requested going to the D-note to celebrate. On Tuesday she took money from her piggy bank to donate for Jesse. She really enjoyed the music of the Something Underground. She danced to every song. The last song they did was a Journey song I believe and it is also done by her favorite group 'FACE'. She simply stared at Seth while he sang that song. She was talking to Seth after and it took us all by surprise when he invited her onstage. We had no idea what to expect, but it worked like magic. I think she sang the same tune but stuck in her own words. When she returned to the table she proclaimed that it was "awesome, a dream come true". We know Jane to be an awesome girl, but we applaud a place like the D-note that can allow this kind of magic to happen. Larry Ruppel" Thanks for sending Larry, that story pretty much justifies everything we do.

Tonight, Friday, April 8 we have James Hurtado playing 5-6:30pm, Free Friday Afternoon Concert.

Then at 7pm Dae Dai feat. SOULFORCE. Dae Dai used to play with the now legendary Future Jazz Project and we are excited to see what he does with this new configuration. $10.

At 9:30pm we have a hip hop flavored show, Latenite Entertainment presents Smoke G's Smoke Sessions Vol 2 feat. Smoke G, 20:12, Diamond Boiz & Arkatek. $7 admission with free copy of Smoke Sessions Vol 2.

Saturday we have Sentimental Sounds Big Band Orchestra playing at 4pm. We love the big bands. Free!

Then at 7pm Saturday we have a CD release show for Swing Je T'aime (feat. Woodcut Jumper dance troupe) We caught these guys at Bliss once and were wowed. Gypsy Jazz of the highest caliber, very cool. $7.

And then at 9:30pm Saturday we have an Intimate Evening W/ The Queen Beez (WUTANG sisters). We heard about this local all female homage to the Wutang Clan after they packed out the Walnut Room a few months ago. We are very excited to have them at the D Note. We just found out they will be going on tour with Raekwon himself in the near future, so they are definitely going places. $7.

Hard to beat a Saturday night like that one, Big Band into Gypsy Jazz into Wutang Clan.

Check out www.dnote.us for the rest of the scoop. And don't forget to "like us" on our new Facebook page.

Yours,

D Wops,

Extra Credit: The poet Paul Violi died last week. Paul was one of the more entertaining poets out there, with a fantastic imagination and a sharp sense of humor. Here's a small sample.

Counterman

What'll it be?

Roast beef on rye, with tomato and mayo.

Whudduhyuh want on it?

A swipe of mayo.
Pepper but no salt.

You got it. Roast beef on rye
. . . You want lettuce on that?

No. Just tomato and mayo.

Tomato and mayo. You got it.
. . . Salt and pepper?

No salt. Just a little pepper.

You got it. No salt.
You want tomato.

Yes. Tomato. No lettuce.

No lettuce. You got it.
. . . No salt, right?

Right. No salt.
You got it. — Pickle?

No, no pickle. Just tomato and mayo.
And pepper.

Pepper.

Yes, a little pepper.

Right. A little pepper.
No pickle.

Right. No pickle.

You got it.
Next.

Roast beef on whole wheat, please,
With lettuce, mayonnaise and a center slice
Of beefsteak tomato.
The lettuce splayed, if you will,
In a Beaux Arts derivative of classical acanthus,
And the roast beef, thinly sliced, folded
In a multi-foil arrangement
That eschews Bragdonian pretensions
Or any idea of divine geometric projection
For that matter, but simply provides
A setting for the tomato
To form a medallion with a dab
Of mayonnaise as a fleuron.
And — as eclectic as this may sound —
If the mayonnaise can also be applied
Along the crust in a Vitruvian scroll
And as a festoon below the medallion,
That would be swell.

You mean like in the Cathedral St. Pierre in Geneva?

Yes, but the swag more like the one below the rosette
At the Royal Palace in Amsterdam.

You got it.
Next.