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.