weekend update Dec 16, 2010

D Port,


Live music is always well worth the time, and, even, we would argue, good for the soul. So..

This Friday we have Tim Bruns and Mike Morter from the band Churchill playing the Friday Afternoon Concert from 5-7pm.

Then at 8pm Friday we have a special Christmas Flamenco show featuring Steve Mullins, Lia Ochoa and many more. Come early for a seat as they usually fill up for Flamenco. $15.

At 10pm Friday, DJ Chonz takes over the dance floor. $5. Ladies free.

(By the way DJ Chonz, arguably the best DJ in CO, is joining The Teaching (from Seattle) for our New Years Eve show this year. The night will have an old school jazzy De La Soul vibe to it and will be tons of fun. $15.)

Saturday at 4pm the Music Train Family Concert Series presents: Okee Dokee Brothers (kids and holiday tunes) $7 adults/$3 kids. Saturday

Saturday at 7pm we have a Christmas Party for PeaceJam including Brittany Williams Band (a diva in the making with an incredibly soulful voice), the Gora Gora Orchestra (balkan dance music a la Gogol Bordello) and DJ CaveM and Moetavation. CaveM has performed with artists such as Talib Kweli, Gil Scott Heron, Public Enemy, Dj Kool Herc, The Last Poets, The Wu Tang Clan, Hieroglyphics, Anthony B, The Pharcyde, Mos Def and The Coup. This will be an awesome show, with proceeds going to benefit PeaceJam which is an amazing local organization that can use all the help it can get. $10 suggested donation.

For more info check out www.dnote.us

People get ready,

D train

Extra Credit: . Known as a poetic novelist, Jack Kerouac's actual poetry is strange and uniquely beautiful. Allen Ginsberg thought Kerouac was the most underrated poet of our time. Here's a couple "fun" poems of his from BOOK OF BLUES. We'll have to type it up for you as it isn't anywhere on the net.

ORIZABA 210 BLUES

36th chorus

I had a pointed mustache
and I mean pointed
half inch from here

Double breasted vest
and a Derby hat
and striped trousers
English shoes, black,
very pointed, they were
Hannah Shoes

People on Broadway'd turn
and look at me

The worst part is yet to come
I had a pince nez
with a long black ribbon
to my buttonhole

And I wore a carnation
white or red

Boy did I look like somethin


37th Chorus

A year later I got caught
I was dressed differently
and everything
But boy that mustache
and that pince nez
was really out of this world

I used that outfit six months
I finally had to pack it in
because it was too well-worn

Pine nez was in a coat
I stole
Mustache I grew in the sanitarium
While taking one of my
numerous drug cures

My mother'd come to see me
She says "Oh No!
Cut it off!"
"I'm just havin a little fun, mother"

weekend update, December 9, 2010

D Vitamins

Hello rays of sunshine. We saw a video recently in which a solar furnace focusing the sun's rays burns up to 3,500 C, hot enough to melt rocks. Just saying.

This Friday at 8pm we have a beautiful reggae band from Boulder, Selasee, with one of the best reggae bass players we've ever heard. $5. Then DJ Chonz comes out to spin at 10pm. Did you know that Chonz was the number one MOST listened to DJ on the radio in Colorado last year? He's also great live too, scratching and mixing, so come dance. Ladies free.

Saturday we have an Ironwood Rain. This is to celebrate the release of their CD, "Burn The Ships" and it is a pirate themed party! release party. At 9pm we have James And The Devil back, super fun and rowdy band. Denver Creative Movement will be coming with them again, making live art. And this time they are bringing our old young friend Melissa Ivey along to play too! We love her. It will be a great night all around. $5.

Check out www.dnote.us for the rest of the shkoop.

Yours,

D (shape of a half moon)

Extra Credit: Here's a poem by Frank O'hara, about talking to the sun.


A TRUE ACCOUNT OF TALKING TO THE SUN AT FIRE ISLAND


The Sun woke me this morning loud
and clear, saying "Hey! I've been

trying to wake you up for fifteen
minutes. Don't be so rude, you are
only the second poet I've ever chosen
to speak to personally
so why
aren't you more attentive? If I could

burn you through the window I would
to wake you up. I can't hang around
here all day."
"Sorry, Sun, I stayed
up late last night talking to Hal."

"When I woke up Mayakovsky he was

a lot more prompt" the Sun said
petulantly. "Most people are up
already waiting to see if I'm going
to put in an appearance."
I tried
to apologize "I missed you yesterday."

"That's better" he said. "I didn't
know you'd come out." "You may be
wondering why I've come so close?"
"Yes" I said beginning to feel hot
wondering if maybe he wasn't burning me

anyway.
"Frankly I wanted to tell you
I like your poetry. I see a lot
on my rounds and you're okay. You may
not be the greatest thing on earth, but
you're different. Now, I've heard some

say you're crazy, they being excessively
calm themselves to my mind, and other
crazy poets think that you're a boring
reactionary. Not me.
Just keep on
like I do and pay no attention. You'll

find that people always will complain
about the atmosphere, either too hot
or too cold too bright or too dark, days
too short or too long.
If you don't appear
at all one day they think you're lazy

or dead. Just keep right on, I like it.

And don't worry about your lineage
poetic or natural. The Sun shines on
the jungle, you know, on the tundra
the sea, the ghetto. Wherever you were
I knew it and saw you moving. I was waiting

for you to get to work.

And now that you
are making your own days, so to speak,
even if no one reads you but me
you won't be depressed. Not
everyone can look up, even at me. It

hurts their eyes."
"Oh Sun, I'm so grateful to you!"

"Thanks and remember I'm watching. It's
easier for me to speak to you out
here. I don't have to slide down

between buildings to get your ear.
I know you love Manhattan, but
you ought to look up more often.
And
always embrace things, people earth
sky stars, as I do, freely and with

the appropriate sense of space. That
is your inclination, known in the heavens
and you should follow it to hell, if
necessary, which I doubt.
Maybe we'll
speak again in Africa, of which I too

am specially fond. Go back to sleep now
Frank, and I may leave a tiny poem
in that brain of yours as my farewell."

"Sun, don't go!" I was awake
at last. "No, go I must, they're calling

me."
"Who are they?"
Rising he said "Some
day you'll know. They're calling to you
too." Darkly he rose, and then I slept.

love letter 11/2/10

D Naturals,

Something in the way you move attracts me like no other lover, something in the way you moo ooh ooh oove...get into the groove, boy you've got to prove your love to me...

There's a little dance mashup for you there. Here's a cool auditory trick. Imagine a beat and then reread the opening line. If you are good you will begin to be able to hear both melodies simultaneously. The neat part is the "after-sound" effect, similar to an after-image effect after staring at something against a bright light. The melodies will swirl in your head for the rest of this e-mail. Proceed.

We have lots more dance mashup for you this weekend. Friday night we have the great Hazel Miller, Colorado's Queen of Soul, back in the house at 7:30pm ($10). Fanfare for the Queen! Opening for Hazel, starting at 5pm, is Colorado's Princess of Soul, Brittany Williams, making her official debut appearance at the D Note. Fanfare for the Princess! After Hazel at 10pm we present the King of Colorado DJs, DJ Chonz, from KS 107.5, in the house spinning vinyl. Fanfare for the King! Such a royal good time. Ladies FREE in D Palace after 10pm.

Saturday we have two recitals early in the day; Music Lessons of Westminster garage band show at 1pm and then Mountain Strings and Jazz at 5pm. Then we have the HS band Synergy back in the house at 7pm with their excess of rock and roll energy. (Speaking of, if you get a chance to read the James Woods article about Keith Moon in this week's New Yorker, do! Best article on drumming ever written. It is a classic.)

Speaking of classics, Saturday night we have a beautiful birthday show put together by and for The D Note's GM, Andy Andurlakis. At 9pm we have the hip hop style of Reverb and the Verse. (Check out their website for cutting edge web design too). At 10pm the completely excellent reggae band The Desciples hit the stage and at 11:30pm we have Relyt The Dozha w/ DJ Detox. This last group is Drum And Bass, Electro style and features Andy's alias, MC Dozha. Dozha is one of the premier Drum and Bass MCs in Colorado. Relyt and Detox both work at the D Note too and this show will be off the hook. $5. Birthday spankings $5. This money will help pay for rehab. Just kidding. We'll give it to the bands.

Next Tuesday night we have a benefit for Urban Peak with ACC All Stars, Zazemi, ACC Pop/Rock Ensemble. $10 suggested donation. Urban Peak is an organization that helps homeless and at risk youth in Colorado. Read more about this worthy cause and event here.

Also, we often don't mention our regular events in this space, but we are very proud of them and will take a moment to reintroduce them to you now. We have Mello Cello brunch on Sunday mornings, Baby Boogie Sunday afternoon, an awesome salsa night on Sunday nights, a long running and democratic open stage on Mondays lead by Jay Ryan, swing dance lessons on Wednesdays at 7pm followed by the greatest blues band in Colorado history, The Clamdaddys, a super fun Geeks Who Drink trivia game on Thursdays at 6:30pm and a killer bluegrass jam lead by Martin Gilmore Thursdays at 9pm.

That's enough right?

Come take part.

D Flat

Extra Credit: This week's New Yorker also had a poem in it by Terrance Hayes that is well worth reprinting here, for a number of reasons, not least of which because it introduces the mind blowing idea of contranyms.

New York Poem

In New York from a rooftop in Chinatown
one can see the sci-fi bridges and aisles
of buildings where there are more miles
of shortcuts and alternative takes than
there are Miles Davis alternative takes.
There is a white girl who looks hi-
jacked with feeling in her glittering jacket
and her boots that look made of dinosaur
skin and R is saying to her I love you
again and again. On a Chinatown rooftop
in New York anything can happen.
Someone says “abattoir” is such a pretty word
for “slaughterhouse.” Someone says
mermaids are just fish ladies. I am so
fucking vain I cannot believe anyone
is threatened by me. In New York
not everyone is forgiven. Dear New York,
dear girl with a bar code tattooed
on the side of your face, and everyone
writing poems about and inside and outside
the subways, dear people underground
in New York, on the sci-fi bridges and aisles
of New York, on the rooftops of Chinatown
where Miles Davis is pumping in,
and someone is telling me about contranyms,
how “cleave” and “cleave” are the same word
looking in opposite directions. I now know
“bolt” is to lock and “bolt” is to run away.
That’s how I think of New York. Someone
jonesing for Grace Jones at the party
and someone jonesing for grace.

/)dam I)eGraff

www.dnote.us

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.

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.