Halloween

Haunted D House,

Our favorite season is upon us. Why does the D Note take so well to Halloween? Because Halloween is, arguably, the most imaginative of the holidays. And just why is it that Halloween the most imaginative of the holidays? We'll leave the answer to that question up to your imagination.

Friday night we begin the festivities at 5pm with a the annual all-Halloween themed performance by Slo Children, a band comprised of D Noters Adam and Jeremy DeGraff, Adam Ferrill and Jax Delaguerre. Free.

Then at 7pm we have the annual Halloween visit from Wendy Woo (Her last name alone clinches her for the gig). At 9pm Duke Street Kings bring their D-Game and 11pm the terrific Quillion returns to the house to take you into the witching hour. $7. The dress up theme for the night is Zombies vs. Pirates vs. Ninjas. But you are only limited by your imagination.

Saturday at 1pm we have fundraiser for Colorado Cross-Disablities Coalition, with music by Andy Ard and The Dangsayers. Costumes encouraged. $15 suggested donation.

Then at 4pm we have a family style concert with local classic rock band Krisis. $3/$5 per family

Finally at 7pm we have a Honkeytonk Halloween Show with the terrific Haldon Wofford and The Hi-Beams. Martin Gilmore and Bonnie and The Clydes are opening the show. Westword named it one of the best 24 Halloween parties to attend in Denver this yer and did a nice article about this show. Check it out here. Thanks to Spunky for putting this show together! You can hear a podcast of a recent KGNU Caberet appearance by Wofford and the boys on Spunky's blog. This show is also a benefit for FightWithFood. Bring canned goods for the homeless and hungry and receive a beautiful signed poster of the show designed by Matt Dougherty. $10

Sunday we have a special Halloween baby boogie from 2-6pm, with a costume contest in which everyone who participates is a winner! Bring your kids in so we can see their costumes, please!

Sunday night we have our 7th annual (!!!) Halloween Salsa Bash. $100 prize for best costume, $50 for second and $25 for third. Sabor De La Calle will be the band on board that night to keep the energy going. Plus, lots of candy.

Once again, thanks to Diandra for decorating the bat cave. The giant bat she made over the stage, whom she calls Herbert, is a wonder to behold, as are the sentinel bats on either side of the stage.

And, finally, a reminder to work on your beard and mustache designs for The Beard And Mustache show Nov. 20.

spooks and sparks,

D bones

Extra Credit: Here's a short and scary poem by Richard Wilbur.


Terza Rima

In this great form, as Dante proved in Hell,
There is no dreadful thing that can't be said
In passing. Here, for instance, one could tell

How our jeep skidded sideways toward the dead
Enemy soldier with the staring eyes,
Bumping a little as it struck his head,

And then flew on, as if toward Paradise.

weekend update, October twenty one, two thousand and ten

D oodles,

We have a lot of news this week so let us commence.

1. Halloween is coming up and we have a belfry full of events and shows. First, thanks to Diandra for decorating! Bat Cave is the decorating theme this year. The giant origami stalactites are a nice touch. If you have some bats hanging out at your house, bring them in and we'll put hem up.

2. Halloween events on 29th and 30th include music by Wendy Woo, Halden Wofford and the Hi-Beams, Quillion, Slo Children, Duke Street Kings and more. Check out details at dnote.us. (Speaking of the website, we have a new design put together by our webmaster, Sean Wolter. Check it out and let us know what you think. Thanks, Sean!)

3. Special Halloween Baby Boogie at 2pm on the 31st. Costume contest for the kids, everyone in costume is a winner and gets a prize!

4. Halloween Salsa Bash on evening of 31st. (our 7th annual Halloween Salsa Bash!)

5. We have begun blues swing dance classes on Wednesdays at 7pm, before the Clamdaddys. Lessons are only $5 and the teacher is excellent. Beginners encouraged.

6. The D Note's 2nd annual Beard and Mustache Showdown is coming up Nov. 20 and we've lined up some great music and prizes for the night. So it is time to start working on your mustacherpieces now.

7. This Friday we have a typically atypical eclectic show, 5pm Free Afternoon Concert w/ Drew Schofield, then 7pm Jason Laroy (acoustic folk guitar virtuoso), 8:30pm Bret Sloan (songwriter driven rock and roll) and 10p Broken Parts (indie rock). $5

8. We have our third annual benefit for Friendship Bridge this Saturday night and they've put together a beautiful night of bluegrass music, starting with Adam Kinghorn and Kyle James Hauser of Head For The Hills will be playing from 6pm-7pm, followed by the Spring Creek Bluegrass Band from 7:30pm-10pm and Abi and the Normals from 10:30pm-Midnight. $10-$20 suggested donation. Good cause (micro-loans for businesswomen of Guatemala) and good music, a win win.

9. Next Tuesday, the excellent local bands HighRaceVine, Cellar Door and Tony Medina will play a special show, free, starting at 7pm.

10. You. Thanks for making the news.


In with,

D New

Extra Credit. We mentioned HighRaceVine is playing next Tuesday. Very cool band, made up, in part, of Jay Ryan, who hosts our open stage on Monday, and Monica Sales, who hosts our Mellow Cello Breakfast brunch on Sundays. The name of the band is taken after 3 consecutive parallel streets in Denver. Together these 3 street names make up a little koan of a poem. HighRaceVine. Seems to sum up the American way. Who can get to the top fastest? Faster, faster, faster. What is at the top? The fact that this question is raised from a random pairing of street names noticed in succession qualifies this band name as a good example of a "found" poem.

weekend update 10/14/10

D miners,

33 miners. 68 days. 2,300 feet. Underground. Saved! Yay! (p.s. the video game version is already out and ready for you to play.)

You can bet there will be some trivia questions concerning the successful extraction of the Chilean miners at Geeks Who Drink trivia, tonight (Thurs, Oct. 14) at 6:30p. Then we'll continue the celebration at 9pm with an open experimental percussion jam led by Ben Long and Ryan Elwood.

Friday night is going to be a whopper. Starts off with free Friday Afternoon Concert at 5pm featuring the excellent guitar work of Michael DeLalla. Then at 7:30p we have an Americana/Rockabilly style show for the rest of the night, starts off with Crowboy, at 9:30p, Brent Loveday (from Reno Divorce) at 9:30p and Brethren Fast at 11p. Crowboy and Loveday always impress. Brethren Fast is high octane rockabilly on the surface, but, as we discovered last time, there are many interesting musical layers underneath. The band pulls off the trick of being laid back and full-on at the same time. 3 great bands, $7.

Saturday we have a terrific edition of the Music Train Family Concert Series at 2p (note time change, as FCS is normally 4pm). This one features bluegrass with the Blue Canyon Boys. These guys played the D Note a few years ago and the show stands out in memory as being excellent. The band is traditional bluegrass (even dressing up in suits), but also has a sound of its own. Kids will dig it too. $7 adults/$3 kids.

Saturday night at 7pm we have our annual Halloween Hafla, presented by Phoenix Dance. Phoenix and the dancers always go all out on costumes and creativity for this hafla and it is one of the coolest things we do at the D Note all year. Check out this video from a Halloween Hafla past. Yallah! will play after the dance performances at 8:30pm and The Inactivists have a halloween set they are playing at 10pm. Come in costume and ready to party. There will be a costume contest and prizes. $8 adults/$5 kids.

Yours in song,

D major

Extra Credit: In honor of the saved Chilean miners we will feature a poem by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. This one was chosen for the irony of its title.

In You The Earth

Little
rose,
roselet,
at times,
tiny and naked,
it seems
as though you would fit
in one of my hands,
as though I’ll clasp you like this
and carry you to my mouth,
but
suddenly
my feet touch your feet and my mouth your lips:
you have grown,
your shoulders rise like two hills,
your breasts wander over my breast,
my arm scarcely manages to encircle the thin
new-moon line of your waist:
in love you loosened yourself like sea water:
I can scarcely measure the sky’s most spacious eyes
and I lean down to your mouth to kiss the earth.

weekend update, October seventh, two thousand and ten

D bomb

In this week's Onion, on the front page, there is an article worth reading. It is titled, "97-Year-Old Dies Unaware Of Being Violin Prodigy". Then there is picture of old woman next to an inset picture of a violin with the caption, "Hollander, and the instrument, inset, that she could have mastered with uncommon grace." The first sentence of the article states, "ROCKFORD, IL--Retired post office branch manager Nancy Hollander, 97, died at her home of natural causes Tuesday, after spending her life completely unaware that she was one of the most talented musicians of the past century and possessed the untapped ability to become a world-class violin virtuoso." Our hope is that this tragedy is not a wasted one, but will be remembered as a lesson by all of you prodigies in the making.

Tonight, if you are feeling creative, come out and help Diandra and the D crew turn the D Note into a bat cave at 8:30p, after trivia. Every year Diandra remakes the D Note for Halloween and she needs our help. Slo Children will be playing an early run of its Halloween set and raising the seasonal spirits while the decorations are being made.

This Friday Afternoon Concert, at 5pm, will be by Laurie Dameron, heckuva jazz singer and player. free. Then 7pm we have a couple of solid local bands acoustic rock bands, 2:10 Special and 7even Days Till Sunrise. 9pm we have our friends Conscious Elliot back with their smart and heartfelt alternative Americana. And 11pm we have Frokus. Frokus has played the D Note before and they were killer. Super talented group, like Tool crossed with early Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Saturday we are closed for a wedding. We love having the energy and spirit of weddings at the D Note.

Now is as good a time as any to get involved at the D Note, whether helping with decorations tonight, learning to salsa dance on Sunday nights, or taking a Zumba class, or getting up on open stage or during the blues jam, or playing trivia on Thursdays. There are lots of ways. So what are you waiting for?

Making the grade,

D Plus

Extra Credit: Here's a wonderful poem by Michael Cirelli, from his book Vacations On The Black Star Line


Tawk

You know, when you talk,
but if you're from where I'm from
you may be "tawking,"
and depending on who you're
tawking to, and where they're from:
which bend of road
or angle of sun or moon-
light hits the dark room
of throat, informs
the way they say what they say,
which side of lip
the words plummet from or how tongue
strings 'em together chops
'em screws 'em,
how Mona is from a below
place where the speakers
speak like they're pulling up
word anchors from the deepest
depths of Mouf, or in some parts
more salt, and others more peppa:
whether cayenne or corn—
I'm in love with a boy
from East Oakland whose word is
stretched longer than
twelve hearses,
and his Dickies are starched.
In Texas, it is the vibration of
the dinner bell, in Kansas
something different.
In New Yawk, Nueva Yol,
Brooklawn-Vietnawm,
where the tongues pulse like
marquees, talk keeps the lights on!
When T-Pain dissected
the tone of Flux
Capacitor, of E.T.'s grand
piano, and named his album
Rappa Ternt Sanga, he wasn't being
ignorant, or ignant at that, wasn't bad
at spelling (maybe bad
at rapping which is why
he turned singer), but he was
accounting for the texture of the dirt
in his teef. He was showing it off
in his smile. This makes sense to me.
Because I want everyone
to see the Rhode Island in my elbow.
I want everyone to know
I was born in a kawfee mug
floating down Narragansett Bay
and raised by a Lion.
And by kawfee mug I mean:
I was born in an alphabet that left its R
on the dressa—and by Narragansett Bay
I mean: an estuary flowing with wrenches
and ratchets and uniforms—and by Lion:
I mean my mother, who's been serving
breakfast to regulars since 1975
(when I showed up),
and to this day they still come to see
her, my ma
who tawks to each and every one
of them cuz she's gotta hotta-gold.

September Thirtieth, two thousand and ten

D lovelies

First off we have a bit of news. Karaoke on Thursday nights is on a hiatus. In the meantime we are going to hold a percussion jam, starting tonight. We've rounded up some great local drummers, including Mohammad Alidu, Alejandro Costano and Ben Long. This is an open session, which means you are welcome to join the fray. (Note, when we say "the fray" we don't mean "The Fray". This is not likely to confuse too many of you, but, as some of you old timers may remember, The Fray played a few of their first gigs in our room.)

Friday we have the next installment of our Art Walk. We have Matt Reniker and Matt Kirk up currently. Matt Reniker's work was brought to us by Moses, of The Clamdaddys. Matt Kirk's work was introduced to us by Zebra Junction. Come check it out, along with the artwork displayed in the rest of a revitalized Olde Town. At 5pm we have Cody Crump playing. This kid is remarkably good. At 7pm we have the FTP band. FTP's Steve Werge's is VP of Colorado Music Business Organization (COMBO) and has been bringing us some great music showcases on Tuesdays this last year, so it will nice to hear his band for a change. At 8:30p we have a new country-ish band THE MCCRAE. This band won Best of People's Fair this year. Come hear why. Then 10:30p we have the awesome Jonny Barber and The Rhythm Razors. Jonny Barber has played the D Note as Velvet Elvis a few times. Always entertaining in any guise. Plus, one of the hottest bass players you will ever see. $7

Saturday evening, at 6pm, we have something unique. Emerging Latina/Indigenous Composer and Saxophonist Asia Fajardo-Wright is debuting her show Omecihuatl Rising, A tribute to the Divine Feminine. Omecihuatl Rising consists of three works. These works utilize cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural improvisation fused with experimental musical
forms. That is, Fajardo-Wright has infused dancing, painting, symbolic staging, and world percussion into her musical compositions.We love having these one of a kind theater works at the D Note. Please come support. $8.

Saturday night at 8pm we have more unleashed creativity. James and The Devil is back with Denver Creative Movement. James And The Devil is a great band, perhaps even The Fray of tomorrow. Denver Creative Movement is a local collective that gathers in the name of expression. Tripsin Effect and North! to Nowhere also playing. There will be live painting at this show too. $5

So there you go, another fun-filled weekend brought to you by the letter D.

Ever,

D termined

Extra Credit: Poet and friend Michael Gizzi died a few days ago, age 56. Here are some haunting lines from his book My Terza Rima, shared with us by the poet Karen Weiser, via Facebook.


I often start over
in a dark wood
the door in the cloud

is not heaven
as newly dead
perhaps I'll become

a dream just night

september twenty third, two thousand ten

D spectacled,

"Bowling for dollars has always been a treat." This is a quote from a recent interview of Robert Plant on NPR. We found it recounted in the New Yorker and, improbably, relay it here for you. We don't know what it means, exactly, but we like the sound of it. It is a treat.

Speaking of treats, Friday night we start off with our free Friday Afternoon Concert featuring J.T. Nolan at 5pm. Nolan is a song and dance man who has been entertaining us with his brilliance for awhile. We are really glad to have him back.

At 7pm Friday we have with a fundraiser to perpetuate culture through a Polynesian organization called FiaFia (Samoan for happiness). Several Hawaiin musicians will sweep in some aloha spirit, like a trade wind. $10 suggested donation.

At 9pm Friday we have a couple very cool indie rock bands, Pez and SuperSeed. $5.

Saturday we have our annual benefit for the Denver Family Institute. Silent Auction. Live Music. Auction opens at 4pm. There will be entertainment for the kids early and then Clusterfunk takes the stage at 8pm. $10-$20 suggested donation.

A reminder that we have plenty of opportunities for all of you performers. We have open stage hosted by Jay Ryan on Monday nights, and if you lean toward the blues, then The Clamdaddys would love to have you sit in on their jam on Wednesday nights.

Ever,

D minus

Extra Credit: Here's a fro of a poem by Allison Joseph.


Thirty Lines About the Fro

The fro is homage, shrubbery, and revolt—all at once.
The fro and pick have a co-dependent relationship, so
many strands, snags, such snap and sizzle between
the two. The fro wants to sleep on a silk pillowcase,
abhorring the historical atrocity of cotton.
The fro guffaws at relaxers—how could any other style
claim relaxation when the fro has a gangsta lean,
diamond-in-the-back, sun-roof top kinda attitude,
growing slowly from scalp into sky, launching pad
for brilliance and bravery, for ideas uncontained by
barbershops and their maniacal clippers, monotony
of the fade and buzzcut. The fro has much respect
for dreads, but won't go through life that twisted,
that coiled. Still, much love lives between
the two: secret handshakes, funk-bottomed struts.
The fro doesn't hate you because you're beautiful.
Or ugly. Or out-of-work or working for the Man.
Because who knows who the Man is anymore?
Is the president the Man? He used to have a fro
the size of Toledo, but now it's trimmed down
to respectability, more gray sneaking in each day,
and you've got to wonder if he misses his pick,
for he must have had one of those black power ones
with a fist on the end. After all, the fro is a fist,
all curled power, rebellious shake, impervious
and improper. Water does not scare the fro,
because water cannot change that which is
immutable—that soul-sonic force, that sly
stone-tastic, natural mystic, roots-and-rhythm
crown for the ages, blessed by God and gratitude.

September sixteenth, two thousand ten

D vine,

Has anybody seen a dog dyed dark green? About two inches tall with a strawberry blonde paw, wearing sunglasses and a bonnet and designer jeans with appliques on it? If so please let us know. Her owner is very worried and is offering a large reward of five dollars. Five dollars is not so large, but the afro that the artist has drawn upon Lincoln's head on this particular five dollar bill is ginormous.

Now, for the weekend. Our Friday Afternoon Concert commences at 5pm with one of our all time favorite chanteuses, Melissa Ivey. Free. At 7. You will be charmed. Possibly even moved.

At 7pm Friday we have a local band, Ironwood Rain, with musical ties to both the harmonies of CSN and the bounce of Jack Johnson. $5.

Then at 9pm Friday we have the gorgeous Zydeco R&B of Curley Taylor and his band, who have come all the way from Louisiana. Great music to dance your cares away to. $15. Sponsored by Colorado Friends of Cajun and Zydeco.

Saturday we start off with Zumba at 10:30am. Great way to get in great shape while having a great time, greatly.

Then at 1pm another great big band jazz group, Sentimental Sounds at 1pm. We have three big bands making regular rounds to the D Note and we just think that's just amazing. Come dance, or just listen. Free.

At 4pm Saturday we have the Music Train Family Concert Series which features a cat named Monte Selby. Here's what the Music Train website says about him. "Monte Selby is a songwriter with over 100 published songs for adults & kids. As a recording artist with MDM Records, Nashville, his CDs include legendary and Grammy-winning musicians, songwriters and producers. He loves helping all ages of learners, has a Doctorate Degree in education, and is the co-author of eight books. Selby’s comical performances leave audiences laughing, singing, and applauding across North America and Europe. Music Row Magazine describes his songs as “a delightful variety” - “funky” - “astonishing” - “Wow”!"
Wow. $7 adults/$3 kids

7pm Saturday is a local HS rock band with a lot of energy and drive called Synergy. $5 adults/$3 kids

8:30pm Saturday is a local blues rock band called Blind Child. $5

And 10pm-midnight we have a couple good heavy rocking indie bands, Finding Nowhere and Gang Forward. $5

For Sunday we should remind you that we have Mello Cello Brunch from 11am-1pm with beautiful live cello music by Monica Sales, excellent breakfast pizzas, and bottomless mimosas and bloody marys. We should also remind you about our unique baby boogie from 2-6pm: bring your kids to hang out with other kids while you eat and drink and be merry. Aaand we should also remind you that we have one of the best salsa nights in the world on Sunday nights with lessons starting at 8pm and a band at 9pm.

Next Tuesday is Adam DeGraff's birthday party at the D Note and to celebrate he will be playing his songs in rotation with some of his very favorite favorite local songwriters, Melissa Ivey, Tony Medina and Mike Whalen. Adam wanted us to let you know that he really hopes you can make it. 7pm. Free.

So much to choose from!

Ever on,

D splay

Extra credit: Here's a nice example of the intricate and inimitable way poet Paul Muldoon's lyrical mind works...


A Hare at Aldergrove

A hare standing up at last on his own two feet
in the blasted grass by the runway may trace his lineage to the great
assembly of hares that, in the face of what might well have looked like defeat,
would, in 1963 or so, migrate
here from the abandoned airfield at Nutt's Corner, not long after Marilyn Monroe
overflowed from her body stocking
in Something's Got to Give. These hares have themselves so long been given to row
against the flood that when a King
of the Hares has tried to ban bare knuckle fighting, so wont
are they to grumble and gripe
about what will be acceptable and what won't
they've barely noticed that the time is ripe
for them to shake off the din
of a pack of hounds that has caught their scent
and take in that enormity just as I've taken in
how my own DNA is 87% European and East Asian 13%.
So accustomed had they now grown
to a low-level human hum that, despite the almost weekly atrocity
in which they'd lost one of their own
to a wheeled blade, they followed the herd towards this eternal city
as if they'd had a collective change of heart.
My own heart swells now as I watch him nibble on a shoot
of blaeberry or heather while smoothing out a chart
by which he might divine if our Newark-bound 757 will one day overshoot
the runway about which there so often swirled
rumors of Messerschmitts.
Clapper-lugged, cleft-lipped, he looks for all the world
as if he might never again put up his mitts
despite the fact that he shares a Y chromosome
with Niall of the Nine Hostages,
never again allow his om
to widen and deepen by such easy stages,
never relaunch his campaign as melanoma has relaunched its campaign
in a friend I once dated,
her pain rising above the collective pain
with which we've been inundated
as this one or that has launched an attack
to the slogan of "Brits Out" or "Not an Inch"
or a dull ack-ack
starting up in the vicinity of Ballynahinch,
looking for all the world as if he might never again get into a fluster
over his own entrails,
never again meet luster with luster
in the eye of my dying friend, never establish what truly ails
another woman with a flesh wound
found limping where a hare has only just been shot, never again bewitch
the milk in the churn, never swoon as we swooned
when Marilyn's white halter-top dress blew up in The Seven Year Itch,
in a flap now only as to whether
we should continue to tough it out till
something better comes along or settle for this salad of blaeberry and heather
and a hint of common tormentil.