D Note love letter 1/26/12

D bosh

We usually focus in on weekend events in this newsletter, but it is good to remind you of some of the other terrific things we have going on. Sunday days we have Mello Cello Brunch at 11am (live Cello playing by Monica Sales and breakfast pizza), followed by Baby Boogie, a great time to relax with a beer and pizza while the kids hang out and play, 2-6pm. Sunday nights we have our award winning salsa night, with lesson at 8pm (great for beginners and advanced alike) followed by one of four rotating salsa orchestras at 9pm. $8. Monday nights we have our open stage hosted by Jay Ryan. Jay's introductions are very funny and it is always a pleasant surprise to hear what kind of talent comes out of the woodwork. Wednesdays we have a swing lesson by the charming and talented Lark Mervine at 7pm (only $5) followed by the legendary Clamdaddys. (best free night of Blues anywhere.) Then on Thursday at 6:30pm we have Geeks Who Drink trivia at 6:30pm. We defy you not to laugh out loud at least once during Trivia. To keep you in shape we also have Zumba Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 10:30am and Yoga w/ live music (donation based) Sunday mornings at 10am. We hope you will make it out to one of these excellent events soon.

As for this weekend, we have Marlo Mortenson followed by The Legendary Hitchhikers, a Tom Petty cover band Friday night starting at 7pm. $10. Saturday night we have our annual Winter Gala Hafla presented by Phoenix, which will feature Malia Delapenia from Hawaii, several belly dance performances and the music of Yallah! $8/$5 kids under 12. Then closing out the evening we have The Volunteer Funk Department. $5.

Next Tuesday we have Sentimental Sounds Big Band at 7pm. Free. Next Saturday we have a mini bluegrass festival with Blue Canyon Boys, Hayward Stranger and Statue Of Liberty Band.

Yeehaw!

D per

Extra Credit: The oceans require a hero. A poem to make one think, by Albert Goldbarth.

Everyday People

The oceans are dying. They require a hero,
or a generation of heroes. The oceans are curdling
in on themselves, and on their constituent lives,
they're rising here, and lowering there,
I swear I've heard them gasping. And my friends ... ?
Are brooding over who their kids are playing with
on the streets. Are coming home after a day where some
midlevel management weasel sucked
their souls out like a yolk from an egg—right through
a tiny puncture-hole in the dome of the skull. The cat
has worms. The price of gas is nearly what
their grandparents' wedding rings cost. The oceans

sorely need a paladin, but my friends are exhausted
disputing how many angels can trample the truth
from a twelve-dollar overcharge on a cell-phone bill.
Our privacy is disappearing, cameras sip it up
like thirsty beasts surrounding a shrinking pool of water, my friends
are worried, oh yes certainly they're worried, but also the tumor
and the marriage and the alcoholic uncle. The war
that's this war but is any war and all war is requesting
a little attention in the cause-part, maybe only
a little more in the effect-part, but my friends know
how impossible it is to attend to even a single other
person sufficiently, plus the dentist, plus the eye exam,
and can't they spend some time renewing their sense
of making beauty in this wreckage, Edie
her hummingbird feeders, Sean his libretto, Omar
his amazing organic noodles: something like Balenciaga

the haute couture designer whose life I'm reading compulsively
while the ice caps and the red tide and the polar bears,
Balenciaga for whom "the business of making beautiful things
absorbed him totally, and there was no room in his life
for anything else," he did a piece of sewing "every day
of his adult life: from the age of three," in 1913 (age eighteen)
"he was learning the women's-wear trade" as the guns
of the World War cleared their throats and aimed, and through
the world depression, "a fishnet cloak
of knotted white velvet, and swathes of parachute silk
to make pink-and-white flowers," and through
the Spanish Civil War, "regarded making dresses
as a vocation, like the priesthood, and an act of worship,"
through (he bargained with Franco) World War II,
chantilly, chenille, mohair, tulle,
"he took the sample of intractable material
into his sanctum and returned in only moments
with a superbly accomplished buttonhole: it
would have been a half-hour's labor for anyone else,"
a buttonhole while Israel was forged in 1948,
a buttonhole for Sputnik, yes a buttonhole,
a perfect—consummate—buttonhole, is this
a condemnation of my friends (and so myself)

or an exoneration? I truly don't know.

--

D Note love letter 1/19/12

Dear Antlers,

Cold yesterday, then crazy winds last night and now a sunny warm day. Gotta love the Colorado weather drama.

This Friday night we have Dustin Morris at 5pm (free), followed by Joelle Joyce, followed by the bluesy rock of Blind Child followed by local rock heroes Quillion. $5. Give it up for getting down.

Saturday at 4pm we have an awesome show for the kids as Music Train Family Concerts presents: Kutandara (African Marimba Ensemble) $7 adults/$3 kids.

At 7pm we have the Rocky Mountain Opera Bowl: The Italian Stallions vs. The Dirty Fachers. The first of its kind, this classical smackdown pits baritone Tony Domenick against mezzo-soprano Cassidy Smith in a vocal sporting event-style competition. Special guest judges and audience participants will decide who takes home the crown, so pick your team and cast your vote. We love doing fun and different stuff like this and hope you will come out to support it so we can keep doing it! $5

At 9pm we have Bourbon Toothpaste. If their band name and funky posters are indicative of their live shows, we're in for a treat. An experience that ranges from Hard Rock and Metal to Jazz, Funk and Bluegrass. Check out their website at bourbontoothpaste.com for a, ahem, taste. $5

At 10:30pm we have Number Station, epic early 90's shoegazer rock style. $5.

We were dancing at the packed to capacity salsa night last Sunday and were just amazed that this dance phenomena has been going strong at D Note for over 8 years. You just have to experience it to really understand why it is so great. The bands are high energy and the dancers are spectular. Come take a lesson and see.

Next Friday night, we have a Tom Petty cover band, for you Petty fans.

Okay, we're in,

D answer

Extra Credit: A silly salsa sonnet

Salsa @ D Note


Standing behind the bar
Staring in awe at the dancers
Killing it on the dance floor
When a drop of water

Hits my ear. I turn to Diandra
And ask why she wanted to
Throw water on my ear for?
She says it wasn't her.

I ask who else it could be?
She answers the sweat
Of the dancers. The heat
Causes sweat to condense
On the ceiling and so the sweat
of all the dancers in the room
had fallen into my ear. Sweet!
I say, that's the perfect metaphor.

Yuck! she says. Salty, I say
And leave to join the dance floor.

D Note love letter plus poem 1/5/12

D finest,

Here we go 2012. We're sure a few of you remember when 2001 seemed like the distant future? A la 2001 Space Odyssey? Well, here we are a decade later with these little phones that connect us to the information of the world, like a super power. Pretty cool being in the future. Of course for you young'uns out there it probably just seems like the present.

Tonight, Jan 5, we have Geeks Who Drink Trivia (Fun! Funny! Funnyny!) at 6:30 followed by Martin Gilmore's picking circle (bring your axe!).

Tomorrow night we have great jazz/funk from Charlie Milo Trio at 5pm (free), followed by acoustic pop of Treehouse Sanctum at 7pm, followed by power pop of SoundRabbit at 9pm followed by bass driven prog rock of Stealth Hippo at 10pm. Stealth Hippo features Matt Dougherty, the genius behind the D Note posters. $5.

Saturday at 4pm we have Steel Drum band from Boulder called Steel Alive. A great family concert. The Kids will love it. $5-$10 suggested donation.

Saturday at 7pm we Dwight Carrier and The Blues Krewe, a Zydeco Legend from Louisiana back by popular demand. $10. Then at 9:30pm we have two great indie bands, The Belle Jar and Reviving Cecilia. $5

Next Tuesday we have a big band concert with Serenade In Blue. A swing dance lesson starts at 6pm and band at 7pm. $10 for both.

Then Wednesday we have Lark Mervine teaching Swing Dance at 7pm. First lesson free. Lark has amazing energy and is a great teacher, so come help kick start her Wednesday night dance lessons.

Okay, that's the gnus,

D man

Extra Credit: Here's a lesser known, but appropriate, poem by Robert Frost.

In A Glass of Cider
t seemed I was a mite of sediment
That waited for the bottom to ferment
So I could catch a bubble in ascent.
I rode up on one till the bubble burst,
And when that left me to sink back reversed
I was no worse off than I was at first.
I'd catch another bubble if I waited.
The thing was to get now and then elated.
--