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.