d note love letter 2/17/11

Hot D8,

This Saturday we celebr8 our 8 year anniversary. We've put together a gr8 show for you. First we have Brittany Williams at 7pm. Brittany is one of our servers and we predict a big career for this woman. She has one of the most subtle voices we've heard, and it is still developing. Plus her original songs are really something. At 8pm we have the legendary Angie Stevens. We are thrilled Angie has agreed to play for us on this special occasion. She's a remarkable musician and performer and we can't w8. Seriously, big crush rock and roll. At 10pm we have a killer reggae band called Coral Thief and we'll dance the night away. $8 cover, bring a friend (or D8) for FREE.

Friday night we have the return of 2:10 Special at 5pm for the free Friday afternoon concert. At 7pm we have the return of Mute Man's Microphone and Wheelchair Sports Camp. At 10pm we have a violin maestro and DJ Jeff Hughes. This guy has a long list of accolades, including playing at the Grammys in 2008. He plays a kind of hip hop violin over tracks he has produced himself. He comes to us highly recommended from a friend that said, "you gotta hear this guy this guy into the D Note".

Another way cool thing happening this weekend is O-Tone Brass Band playing for Music Train Family Concert at 4pm on Saturday. Bring the kids. They will be D lighted. (D lit?) $7 for adults/$3 for kids.

We have a guest teacher for Yoga this Sunday, Darcy Hagerman. Melissa Ivey, Adam Degraff, Brittany Williams and others will be playing meditative music to help support your peace and practice. Come join the community. Bring your own mat. Class starts at 10am sharp.

Next Weekend is a party we put together specifically for Pisces and all friends of Pisces. Pisces are in the door for free, so spread the word. Great Pisces bands on board too, Pearls 4 Breakfast, SoundRabbit and Greensleeves.

Zumba is also happening, as well as salsa lessons, blues swing lessons, mello cello brunch, baby boogie, open stage, and much more.

That's most of it. Google the rest.

Or dnote.us.

Love,

dnote.us

Extra Credit: A short line for a long week:

"If music be the food of love, play on." W. Shakespeare.

We will take this opportunity to play on and unveil the best conspiracy theory of all time for YOUR eyes only. The best version of the bible is the King James in our opinion. Why? Because this version is the one (in the English language) that pays the most attention to sound and music. Think of the psalms, how beautiful the language is, "yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. " Well, the theory we propose is that Shakespeare translated the Psalms. King James invited the best writers of his kingdom to translate the bible. Shakespeare was a favorite of King James, having written Macbeth for him. (Now there's a morality tale fit for a King!) Here's the evidence. Shakespeare would have been 46 years old during the time the King James Version was translated. If you go to Psalms 46 and count 46 words down from the top of the psalm and 46 words up from the bottom you will see the words "shake" and "spear". My guess is that for some reason Shakespeare asked (or was asked) not to take credit for the translation. One can guess reasons. But Shakespeare, being the genius he is, found an improbable, possibly divine, link between Psalms 46 and his own age and used it to reach the clever person who first uncovered this fantastic literary Easter egg, whomever they may be. Pass it on.

Weekend update 2/10/11

D side,

This Friday night at 8pm we have a Flamenco dance performance by Cositas Buenas featuring Kevin Romero on guitar. $15/$12 students. One of the amazing benefits of the D Note has been the the immersion into different cultures, and Flamenco is perfect example. Who knew that there was such a strong contingent of Spanish music and dance in Colorado? We now know. By the way, if you want a Flamenco primer you can do no better than to start to with Garcia Lorca's essay on Duende. (google it)

After Flamenco we have the return of DJ Chonz at 10pm, definitely one of the best all around deejays in Colorado and we'll be dancing hard. Ladies free.

Saturday afternoon at 4pm we have Sentimental Sounds Big Band Jazz concert, which is a benefit for Sooper Credit Union Community Foundation. $10 suggested donation.

Saturday evening we have a big show featuring house favorites Stonebraker. Jon Boland will kick things off at 7pm, Zen Mustache at 8:30, Stonebraker at 10 and Broken Parts at 11:30pm. $5. Rock and roll!

Next Monday night is Valentine's Day and we encourage you all to come out and play a love song for your lover for open mic night. Add some D Note pasta and wine and could anything be more romantic? Sign up is at 6:30p and Jay Ryan will do his best to fit everybody in.

Next Tuesday at 7pm is an especially excellent songwriter showcase with Jason Vigil, Naor Nave, Jon Woodhead and Jay Ryan. You will swoon, guaranteed.

Next Saturday night is our 8 year anniversary party with Angie Stevens, Brittany Williams and Coral Thief, with a special poster art show by Matt Dougherty. Mark it down because we want you to be there to celebrate with us.

Love,

D ride

Extra Credit: A wintery poem by Adam DeGraff, a local poet whose poetry we first discovered on the side of a train.


Delayed In Central Station

The poetry of liberty. Writing on walls when no one's around.
Reading your own words as if feeling the kind gesture of touch.
The warmth of the touch, brushing against the back of your neck, caressing your ear. "My language trembles with desire."

The words are now embedded, the bride and groom wed.

Delayed by a snowstorm and a momentary ellipse
inside of Central Station, the center of all known
worlds. The center of nothing, all has stopped.
There is only time for this. This is everything.
The pen takes advantage of the lull
between the trains and fills the wall.

As slow as the mind will go. The mind is
making connections to worlds unknown.

Who is there? What is on the wall of your train?
These words dissolve. A man full of nothing, happy,
stops to look...

Train tagging in a winter wonderland.

D Note love letter, 2/3/11

D Flowers

If summer is for flowering, is winter for deflowering? We'll leave that question open ended.

Tonight, after trivia (which has been rocking lately), we have a picking circle lead by Martin Gilmore. Martin is entrenched in the Bluegrass scene of Colorado and you never know who you will find sitting in with him. But it is always a great mix.

Friday we are having a birthday party for our friend Bob Marley. He's still looking young at 66! An amazing new local reggae world band called Trichome is playing at 8pm. And Dr.U will be spinning reggae-tinged Dub Step at 10pm. $5.

Early evening Friday the fantastic Melissa Ivey will play for the FFAC (Free Friday Afternoon Concert). Because we are lucky.

Saturday at 11am we have a chocolate tasting as part of the Historic Olde Town Arvada Chocolate Affair. There will be events all over town. A no-brainer really.

Saturday at 5pm we have Serenade In Blue, a local Big Band with panache. $10 suggested donation.

Saturday at 7:30pm we have The Mitch Lehn Folk Trio (which isn't folk or a trio and this paranthetical qualification should just become part of their name). Then The Jake Leg Shakers, original rock and roll, returns to the D Note stage. Are they getting into double digits yet? And we end the evening with the Andy Hackbarth Band. This last band is new to the D Note, but we here they are super fun. $5.

Sunday morning at 10am our friend Laura Schallmoser is teaching yoga while Melissa Ivey, Brittany Williams, Adam DeGraff and others play meditative music. It is Laura's birthday too, so this is a party (of sorts) and YOU are invited.

It looks like next Monday there is a Punk-rock-off during the open stage. We're not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds fun. Next week for open stage, February 14, would be an excellent day to get up and sing a love song to the love of your life. What better gift?

We have a killer flamenco show next Friday at 7:30p, Stonebraker next Saturday night. And Angie Stevens w/ Coral Thief for our 8 year anniversary show Feb. 19th.

Okay, thanks for smelling so sweet,

D thorn

Extra credit: Last week we shared a poem by Anne Waldman, co-founder of Jack Kerouac Poetry School at Naropa in Boulder. Allen Ginsberg was the other founder. Allen got around, so some of you may know him. James Franco just played him in the movie "Howl". Here's a poem by Allen that reaches us through time and space.

Song

The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction

the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
burning with purity--
for the burden of life
is love,

but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love--
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
--cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

--must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.

The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye--

yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.

San Jose, 1954

update 1/27/11

D Part Your,

How is the hanging garden? By hanging we mean moving. By moving we mean legs. By legs we mean dancing. By dancing we mean hanging. So, how?

This weekend at the D Note is going to be a magical sleigh ride around the world. (I stole that line from local DJ Terrasonic, who we highly encourage everyone to listen to Saturday noon on KGNU.)

Friday night: We start off at 5pm with acclaimed songwriter and guitarista extraordinaire, Kimmerjae Johnson. Free. Then at 7:30pm we have Dr. Harlan's Amazing Bluegrass Tonic. This is a local bluegrass act that has come up out of nowhere and surprised us all. Great stuff if you like bluegrass, dynamic instrumentals, beautiful harmonies. $5.

Speaking of great bluegrass, there is a killer circle taking shape on Thursday nights at 9pm after trivia, with the pre-legendary Martin Gilmore at the helm.

For the dance party Friday night we have Alejandro Castano manning the turn tables. We say "manning", because this happens to be Alejandro's 21st birthday party. Many of you may know Alejandro, or at least recognize him. He's been playing drums at D Note since he was 14! Now he has shaped up to be an excellent jazz drummer. But he's also a fun DJ in his spare time. He's gonna be spinning the tasty dance tunes Friday night so come out and celebrate. Ladies free.

Saturday we have the Winter Gala Hafla, presented by Phoenix. The Hafla is great. How could several troupes of women dancing creative routines not be great? We suggest getting there by 6pm if you want a seat. Starts at 7pm. $6/$5 kids. After the Hafla we have a new funk band on the scene, Volunteer Funk Dept. Come dancing. $5.

Next Friday we have a Bob Marley 66th Birthday show with Trichome (world reggae) at 8pm and Dr.U (dubstep) at 10pm. Mark your calendar. Also Stonebraker Feb. 12 and Angie Stevens Feb. 19.

Ba dum bum,

D rum

Extra credit: Anne Waldman is a major poet who just so happens to have deep roots locally. With Allen Ginsberg she started The Jack Kerouac School Of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa in Boulder. Here's a poem of hers. It is akin to the poem we featured recently by Frank O'hara, "A True Account Of Talking To The Sun On Fire Island". It also echoes (like a game of telephone) O'hara's line from his Personism Manifesto, "While I was writing it I was realizing that if I wanted to I could use the telephone instead of writing the poem, and so Personism was born."



Phonecall From Frank O'hara

“That all these dyings may be life in death”
I was living in San Francisco
My heart was in Manhattan
It made no sense, no reference point
Hearing the sad horns at night,
fragile evocations of female stuff
The 3 tones (the last most resonant)
were like warnings, haiku-muezzins at dawn
The call came in the afternoon
“Frank, is that really you?”

I'd awake chilled at dawn
in the wooden house like an old ship
Stay bundled through the day
sitting on the stoop to catch the sun
I lived near the park whose deep green
over my shoulder made life cooler
Was my spirit faltering, grown duller?
I want to be free of poetry's ornaments,
its duty, free of constant irritation,
me in it, what was grander reason
for being? Do it, why? (Why, Frank?)
To make the energies dance etc.

My coat a cape of horrors
I'd walk through town or
impending earthquake. Was that it?
Ominous days. Street shiny with
hallucinatory light on sad dogs,
too many religious people, or a woman
startled me by her look of indecision
near the empty stadium
I walked back spooked by
my own darkness
Then Frank called to say
“What? Not done complaining yet?
Can't you smell the eucalyptus,
have you never neared the Pacific?
‘While frank and free/call for
musick while your veins swell’”
he sang, quoting a metaphysician
"Don't you know the secret, how to
wake up and see you don't exist, but
that does, don't you see phenomena
is so much more important than this?
I always love that.”
“Always?” I cried, wanting to believe him
“Yes.” “But say more! How can you if
it's sad & dead?” “But that's just it!
If! It isn't. It doesn't want to be
Do you want to be?” He was warming to his song
“Of course I don't have to put up with as
much as you do these days. These years.
But I do miss the color, the architecture,
the talk. You know, it was the life!
And dying is such an insult. After all
I was in love with breath and I loved
embracing those others, the lovers,
with my body.” He sighed & laughed
He wasn't quite as I'd remembered him
Not less generous, but more abstract
Did he even have a voice now, I wondered
or did I think it up in the middle
of this long day, phone in hand now
dialing Manhattan

weekend update 1/20/11

D Vine

The other day we were hanging out at the bar. This old guy wobbles in from the street, sits down at the bar and immediately starts insulting the fellow sitting next to us. He screams, "I slept with your mother!" The bar goes quiet and everyone waits to see what will happen next. The guy again yells, "I SLEPT WITH YOUR MOTHER!" The other fellow says, "Go home Dad, you're drunk."

Just a day in the life. Speaking of "A Day In The Life", this Friday, Jan 21, we have a Beatles tribute band called 3eatles playing at 7:30pm. $6 (the same price, incidentally, that it was to see The Beatles at Red Rocks in '64.) Our old friend Amy Kitteringham is singing jazz standards at 5pm for the free Friday afternoon concert and DJ Chonz rounds out the night at 10pm.

Saturday at 4pm the Music Train Family Concert Series presents: Kutundara (African Marimba ensemble). $7 adult/ $3 kids. Great thing to do with the family.

At 7pm Saturday we have a CD release party for a band that is dear to our hearts, Wonderlic. All the members of this band have been friends of ours for a years and we're excited that they have come out with their first CD. It's a beaut, with funky grooving style all its own. Also playing, in support, will be The Riot and Five In The Wheel. $5 suggested donation (no one turned away).

Sunday morning come out for a little meditative music at 10am with Adam DeGraff, Melissa Ivey, Brittany Williams and others. You are free to listen, join in, or practice freeform yoga.
Then at 11am we have The Mello Cello Brunch, with Monica Sales on Cello. The breakfast pizzas are amazing if you have not been in to try one yet.

Next Tuesday night at 7pm we have a special performer from Hawaii playing, Mango Stephens. There will be hula dancers too. No cover. This guy is the real deal and has a beautiful sound. Another great thing to bring the family out for.

There is a lot more going on too. For the rest of the schedule, check out www.dnote.us.

Yrs,

D scribe

Extra Credit: Here's a haiku from the 17th century Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho. We found it in David Mura's book "Turning Japanese".

Coming home at last
At the end of the year
I wept to find
My old umbilical cord.

weekend update 1/13/11

D-ear,

(a D looks like an ear, no?)

How about them Snow Angels? They are playing like they mean it. Here's hoping they make it all the way to the International. We pledge to help sponsor them all the way to ultimate victory.

Several members of the team will make an appearance at the D Note tonight for trivia and bluegrass. We have Geeks Who Drink trivia tonight, Thurs, Jan 13, at 6:30pm followed by killer picking circle led by myth in the making Martin Gilmore at 9pm. Our pizza is awesome and what could be a better night out with Snow Angels?

Tomorrow night, Fri, Jan 14, we have local great JT Nolan for dinner hour 5-7pm, free. Then we have a Kana Ka Pila, a Hawaiin jam with Hawaiin musicians, from 7-9pm, ($5 donation toward Hawaii Cultural Club). Perfect summer day vibe on a winter's eve. At 9pm we have High Race Vine, (because everything is better with Cello) and at 10pm we have Chonz, the best DJ of his Kind in Colorado. (There we said it.)

Saturday we are closed for a wedding during the afternoon. Then at 7pm we have something different, an evening Zumba class with Paul Reyes and Davida Wright Gavin. Our morning Zumba has been doing great on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 10:30am too. Saturday would be a fun time to try this dance exercise for the first time if you've been meaning to $10. At 8:30pm we will keep the dancing going with a funk jazz band called Broken Holmes, followed by the hottest new band in Denver, In Due Time at 11pm. This band blew us away last time they played. $5

Monday nights Jay Ryan runs an wondefully over the top rendition of an Open Stage Night. You should come and dust off your songs, join the community. Jay also has an acoustic showcase next Tuesday night at 7pm with Jay Ryan, Kenny Lee Young, Kipp Chambers, Michael Amidei. Magic may be in the mix.

Okay then,

D moral

Extra Credit: Our friend Julien Poirier just put out a new book, "EL GOLPE Chileno", on our favorite press, Ugly Duckling. We've been enjoying it. Here's an excerpt of a long poem called Uncollected Introductions.


"I kind of like how this one goes...

The eyeball on the keychain
screwed up its smile in the face of the rain
singing young, and old
and middle aged,
poetry for everyone

The strut--that's what I'm trying to get all the time...Arrogant infant strutting
on a bright ramp in space, waving a scepter as rose petals rain form the stands.

x electric shepherds in the snow
mace the lightning's ice-age poles
whose bearded sons with ink aglow
sing poetry for everyone

As the rocking chair's budding ladder rungs
spunk cement of shivering bamboo
the strategy of psychotic avenues
fingerprints the throat of dunes

and as we sun
on hot tar roof
on 52
and 9th Avenue
your hands are with your words
and your tongue is with mine
singing Poetry
to thee and thine, to bums
and moneyed swine

to old and young, to second youth
to fatuous twisters of the truth
to channel surfers on the slaughterhouse sluice
to love and the lover's one-eyed sleuth

Poetry is Truth, Truth
without poem a quartz-toothed drone
whoring guns to starving people,
scrapping marrow in the phone

lying on tv,
lying in bed, the future's dead
will blaze a laughtrack to its grave
still yet this lyre plays
the siren's town crier
for poetry enslaved.

(ait oudinar, morocco 1997)

Yep, all that Blake I was reading musta have hit my mind and pickled it in the sweet
and silly sauce, just my speed. I was a short order Blakean cook sitting next to the
canyon stream, dancing as the Berber kids (they seemed so kind!) winged rocks at
me. Down by the almond trees."

love letter 1/6/11

D stressed,

Strange how the holiday season is meant to be relaxing, but is actually, often, stressful, with all that buying gifts and traveling and visiting, etc. It can feel like a final exertion after a long day (year) of work. But then somehow the New Year always feels like a fresh breath after a good night's sleep. Or is that just us?

One thing you can do, if you are needing to de-stress, is come practice free form yoga and listen to meditative music Sunday mornings at 10:30am, starting this Sunday, Jan 9. Melissa Ivey, Adam DeGraff and others will play the music and instructor Elle Potter will loosely lead the yoga. Bring your own mat, or just come to listen to the music. Free, but donations accepted for local charities.

Another thing you can do is look at some art. There is an art walk this Friday in Olde Town from 5-7pm and we have some really cool stuff up. Dan Rodriguez, from the burning hot group Elephant Revival will play 5-7pm. Music and dancing are also good for unwinding. Blind Child will play blues rock 8-10p. $5. And finally the great DJ Chonz spins at 10pm.

Saturday we have music all day, with the outsider blues of JD Cordle at 1pm (free), a family concert with blues band Soul Tree at 4pm (free), the blues rock of INOTIO at 7pm. $5. And finally Drum and Bass, electro with Dr. U and Mahesh at 10pm. (free 21 up, $5 under).

We should also reiterate some of the new weekly events we started late last year. There is swing blues dance lessons at 7pm on Wednesdays for $5 before the Clamdaddy jam. Martin Gilmore has started a very cool picking circle Thursday nights at 9pm after trivia. At 11:30 am on Sundays we have Mello Cello brunch. And of course there is much more, which you can see at www.dnote.us. Join the community.

clearly,

D spectacled

Extra Credit: Paul Zimmer is a poet from Wisconsin who caught our eye on the Daily Poetry blog last week.

What Zimmer Will Do

(The earliest color photographs were called autochromes (1904-
1930), formed on glass plates using a layer of minute grains of
starch dyed red, green, and blue and coated with a panchromatic
emulsion. When viewed closely, the finished images are like
miniature Pointillist paintings.)

I am looking at an image of two young French women sitting
in a garden around 1906,
and I become the great bird of love again;
crazy with spring, I swoop down
into the middle of the belle époque,
skitter and flop on a gravel path at the feet
of these two unsmiling French girls who sit
with their hair pulled back over eyes of shade.

I will make them blush and laugh
in their pink, summer frocks as I fly up
and dart between their wicker chairs
over beds of primroses, fan plants
and columbines, to an open window
where picnic hampers have been placed.

Then the three of us will ramble
Into sunlight and droning grasses.
I will circle their lovely, oval heads,
Gently plucking at their barrettes until
They laugh, "Zimmer, l'oiseau absurde!"
You crazy bird! And toss me
Bits of bread and boiled egg.