D Note love letter, 11/18/10

D follicles,

This Saturday, November 20, we have our second annual Beard And Mustache Showdown. Last year's was a lot of fun and this year will be even better. The event is growing like, um, well, you know. The Showdown was conceived when Monica D happened upon a similar event in Anchorage Alaska, a state with prodigious facial hair. But Colorado is no slouch in that department either. We are looking forward to seeing your mustacherpieces. 6:30pm is registration if you are entering the Showdown. Monica puts together very cool prizes including art by the artist currently showing at D Note, Rachel Westforth. A band aptly named Bonnie and the Beard is opening at 7pm. <(We highly encourage checking out their myspace, very cool music.) The beer tasting w/ several breweries, including Dry Dock Brewery also starts at 7pm. The Showdown is at 8pm. The bluegrass band Acoustic Mining Company plays at 8:30pm. We announce winners at 9:30pm and Oakhurst is headlining at 10pm. Oakhurst an awesome fun bluegrass band. The best part is that the whole thing is a benefit for Denver Girls And Boys Club Of America so your money is very well spent. $10 cover/ $20 for beer tasting/ $20 for contest entry. Check out the fantastic poster Matt Dougherty did for the Beard And Mustache Showdown here.

Friday night we have a special acoustic set from Quillion for the FFAC (free Friday afternoon concert) at 5pm. The at 7pm we have Dave Tamkin in from L.A. with Michael Adam, and Seth Bradley $7. Smooth and beautiful.

Then we have the return of DJ Chonz at 10pm. The premier last week was off the hook. Chonz had DJ Nunez and DJ Tenacity open up for him and they were great. But his set topped it like a fireworks display of pop bravado. And the dance floor was popping like Reddenbockers. He threw so much into the mix, including surprises like Bell Biv Devoe and even Harry Belafonte. Can't wait for this week. $5 cover. Ladies FREE!

Thursday nights we have Martin Gilmore leading a bluegrass jam at 9pm, after trivia. Last week was the second week and already 10 excellent pickers were there. Come play or just enjoy.

Next Tuesday we have our chef Taj Ray's band The Hacks playing with The Misadventures. Good to get a little punk back in the house.

Okay, that's plenty of news. For the rest of the schedule check out dnote.us

Love youse

D raffe

Extra Credit: Here is a poem Adam D wrote for his daughter. Forgive the nepotism.


Portrait of Sofia, Six Weeks Old

There is your mouth, pursed
in concentration; absolute focus
on a simple necessity. The eyes

are not focused on anything yet,
but are wide in their birth, like
a poet's lost-in-wonder look.

The eyes are for later.
The mouth points in hunger.
In the hunger of the mouth

goes the wonder of milk,
shown here in the eyes as a gleam
of innocent desire. In the far away dream

of the eyes is the pleasure of taste,
the land of milk and honey.
It is providence, not as promise,

but as fact, in your infinitely open eyes.

update, 11/11/10, Chonz in the house

D ants,

This Friday night at 5pm we start off with JT Nolan, a friend who's music we have long admired. Free.

Then we have Mono Verde back in the house for an early show. Mono Verde is a great latin reggae band, similar to Manu Chao. We are very lucky to have them. The band is made up of members of 9 members from all over the world, a truly cosmopolitan group. They play from 8-10p. $6

And Mono Verde should have no problem getting the room hot enough for the premier show of DJ Chonz' weekly residency every Friday nights at 10pm. Some of you may know Chonz as the drive time DJ for KS 107.5, the booty jam station. Chonz is as good as it gets and will be spinning a mix of hip hop, latin and R&B. But even the best DJ can't do it without dancers, and that is where we need your help. Help us make the front windows sweat, like they do on salsa night. Please spread the word to dancers far and wide. $5 cover, but ladies are free, so especially tell your girlfriends...

Saturday night we have a three band line up local goodness, The Mitch Lehn Folk Trio, Jake Leg Shakers and The Incantations. It should be noted that the Mitch Lehn Folk Trio is not a trio and not even all that folky. But we always enjoy them, same with Jake Leg Shakers. The Incantations are new to the D Note, but we're intrigued.

A reminder that Martin Gilmore is leading a weekly Bluegrass jam after Trivia on Thursdays at 9pm. Don't miss the opportunity to work on your chops, and more importantly, to be involved in playing music. Same goes for Blues Jam with The Clamdaddys on Wednesday nights and Open Stage on Monday nights. And, if you've been wanting to learn to swing, there's a swing blues dance lesson for $5 with teacher Rachael DeMers on Wednesdays at 7pm.

Mark your calendars for our second annual Beard & Mustache Showdown, with OAKHURST, Acoustic Mining Company and Bonnie and The Beard, next Saturday, Nov. 22.

Over and in,

D ploy

Extra Credit: We once had the privilege of seeing the poet Denise Levertov read, shortly before she died. Her rhythms rocked you to sleep, but the ideas in the poems woke you up. Here's a terrific poem of hers from 1960 that we recently discovered.

Come into Animal Presence
Come into animal presence.
No man is so guileless as
the serpent. The lonely white
rabbit on the roof is a star
twitching its ears at the rain.
The llama intricately
folding its hind legs to be seated
not disdains but mildly
disregards human approval.
What joy when the insouciant
armadillo glances at us and doesn't
quicken his trotting
across the track into the palm brush.

What is this joy? That no animal
falters, but knows what it must do?
That the snake has no blemish,
that the rabbit inspects his strange surroundings
in white star-silence? The llama
rests in dignity, the armadillo
has some intention to pursue in the palm-forest.
Those who were sacred have remained so,
holiness does not dissolve, it is a presence
of bronze, only the sight that saw it
faltered and turned from it.
An old joy returns in holy presence.

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.