Berkshire Big Band's gave a good show Sunday

Under the arbor on a GORGEOUS Sunday afternoon out on the Brookfield Library lawn - There were foot-tapping big band tunes - great solos in a spectacular jazzy way wow!!! Berkshire Big Band really is just the bee's knees. HA! Fabulous.  Lots of silly talk for fun by the band leader and a wonderful vocalist too. I'm glad i went. Pure joy. And the library scooped ice cream to everyone before it started to make it a really "summer" social.  I missed that part though but it's just as well.

Open Mic Host Chris Ellis has NEW Venue at RIVER BISTRO

Chris Ellis who hosted the fabulously popular Open Mic at 59 Bank Street - has moved his operation to THURSDAY nights at the River Bistro (next to Boardman Bridge on Route 7 a couple miles north of Big Y) in New Milford.

He's teamed up with a co-host Al Burgasser and the whole thing runs very smoothly, from 7-11pm. It started June 5th, and is acquiring a broad following of talented, skilled musicians and even a few poets! Prepare to tap your feet and smile!!! If you are a player come out and be heard. It's a supportive listening musical community that makes you feel welcome. It's a great place to try out your new songs.

 At the Bistro, you can get a drink or a great meal or both. Personally I like a small salad with their home-brewed coffee. (The Oreo Cookie Pie looks pretty appealing though!)

*** Feel free to "like" the event's  Facebook page  if you are a FBKer.  Or just visit the brand new website Chris is building at http://www.thursdayopenmic.com/  ***

The view of the river from the River Bistro parking lot. NICE!

i'm on an Open Mic binge

Things changed a bit at home and I am on a binge of getting out hearing live music and open mic singing! Yay! Before this I was on a binge of staying home and watching reruns. The change was brought about because my caree's meds were rescheduled while she was briefly in a rehab facility recently. She is doing well on the new regime! Partly I am spurred by the thought that things could change again at any time and I should get up and get out while I can...Also in the extremes of cold and heat I am less inclined to venure out. So while conditions and weather are favorable - I have been checking out various open mics -

• the Tuesday Open Mic at the Hideaway Kitchen Bar in Ridgefield hosted by Fred Ball, 
• the brand new Thursday Open Mic at River Bistro hosted by Chris Ellis (former of Tuesday Open Mic at 59 Bank), 
• the open mic at the new Town Crier in Beacon NY hosted by Don Lowe, and the 
• Wednesday Night open mic at the All-American Valley General Store (not sure of the hosts name) in Seymour.

People have been so kind! Great audiences and some fantastic music.

I've also heard recent and wonderful performances by Don Lowe at the "Grovin' in New Fairfield" series,

Shannon McMahn at Kolekolo World Coffee in Middletown,

 Two Dollar Hat at Vivo in Danbury,

and of course the wonderous Pears at Fast Eddies in New Milford. No photo for that. Sorry.

Poet Guss Stepp

I've been thinking about Poet Guss Stepp who died in 2007. I always have wondered how his name came to be spelled that way, but I guess I am never going to know that now. I didn't know him well but admired his work. He always had a great smile and something engaging to read at his featured readings and at open mics. He sent poems to me when I was editor of Bent Pin Quarterly and subsequently died before he could see his work online in Bent Pin. Today I thought I would collect and offer some links.

Guss Stepp on Wednesday Night Poetry's archive:

http://wedpoetrypast.wordpress.com/tag/guss-stepp/

Guss Stepp passing noted on Stamford Writes:

http://www.stamfordwrites.org/tw/tiki-view_articles.php?find=&topic=&type=&offset=30&sort_mode=publishDate_desc

Guss Stepp's work in Bent Pin Quarterly:

        1)  Existance

        2) The Blues is

        3) Looking For Vincient

        4) The Ghosts Of Halloween

More numerous indeed...

Just stopping by with a brief post, and tipping my metaphorical hat to this blog that I have been ignoring for a while now....    In the last year I have found many near at a hand who are closet unbelievers... May we all raise our hands and be counted....

Seeing beauty in the universe

This is a video I particularly liked from YouTube, though as a naturalist I might quibble with the term spirituality. I take that to mean that feeling of being in the moment, a part of,  feeling in unison with what is around you. If you click through and watch this on YouTube itself, you can read the text the videographer has put up alongside it.

Don Lowe - Singer Songwriter - Brand New Cadillac

Another song I am liking a lot these days

 

Pigeon holes and Platitudes

People love platitudes. I'm fond of a few myself. Just check the memes floating around Facebook and other social networks. Platitudes and pigeonholes make us relax. Reality, not so much.

In general people prefer that disturbing realities fold their wings neatly, then duck politely into a sturdy square box with a lid, out of sight - a box that keeps its contents in check - so things can't pop out and flop around in plain sight. Otherwise people might start questioning their faith in a happy world where a good-guy god reigns and where everyone who needs soon has.

We reach for platitudes for comfort.. Nonsense like: "Everything happens for a reason. Everything works out for the best."  Tell that to an antelope being torn apart by hyenas. The messy truth is this: the living world runs on death. Hamburgers, salmon steak and chicken wings have all been ripped untimely from beasts who weren't through with them yet. Don't let the grocery store's neat Styrofoam trays and pristine shrink wrap fool you. Life eats other life in order to continue. Purportedly this is the invention of a gentle loving god.

People too end in unseemly ways. They get blown up, burnt to cinders, have limbs severed, are mangled inside car wrecks,  beaten to death, starve in slow bony collapse, ache with suicidal despair, have their bleeding guts poured out on indifferent ground before laughing witnesses.

It's just easier for the more comfortable branches of the human race not to think about it much. We stuff this information into a little square pigeonhole and we paste a few decorator platitudes on top of it.

This enables us to buy expensive designer sneakers and iPhones for our kids without guilt. It enables us to live as extravagantly as possible believing we deserve it all, or to happily enjoy whatever small pleasures we can find while rationalizing away the world's ubiquitous cruelty and inequity.

This philosophical slight of hand makes it possible to have lunch once in a while. And after all, if you have lunch - you might as well savor every bite....

Bon appetite.

-- Mad Mar (Mistryel) Walker
originally written April 9, 2002 & updated in 2013. 

Location location location

 A cactus has been lurking silently in the backroom of this residence for as long as we have lived here. It was a gift from a former friend just before moving here. The damn thing lived on and on - longer than the friendship which gave way and finally collapsed under the weight of unfulfilled expectation. I rarely do the expected thing, or the polite thing. Some people want me to conform

 It didn't bother the cactus though at least not for many years. But even a cactus requires attention in the form of light and water once in a while. The blinds were opened, The pot was behind a pile of books. It didn't get water and the sun shone on and on. I forgot it to death. It happens. I just watered it though it is pale and brown. Just in case there is a tiny spark left. You never know.

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Instrumental epiphany at the Irish Cultural Center

For quite a few years now I had been playing a big red guitar called Henry, pictured left. He was a flame top Kort guitar. I thought the finish was pretty and the tone was nice, Fishman pickups etc. But lately I had been feeling like playing and singing at the same time had become a struggle. I discovered why recently.

I went down to the Greater Danbury Irish Cultural Center on July 31 to play in a new Wednesday night music open mic there, hosted by Bob & Felicia of the Blue Yodels. It was right here in town, perfect location for me and I couldn't think of a good excuse not to try it out. When I got there though - I kinda had second thoughts. I hadn't played anywhere in ages, and had never been in the place before, had no idea what it was like. So decided I'd leave Henry in the trunk - just watch the show and check out the lay of the land. Maybe play next time.

That was my plan anyway. Plans often go awry. Bob chatted along in his best professional host / MC way and pretty soon he'd talked me into doing a couple songs. So I used his Blueridge acoustic. Wow. It was a different experience - so comfortable and easy after Henry.

When I went home, I took a look at the shape of my guitar with the image of that Blueridge in my head. Henry was kinda thick-bodied, and thick-wasted . And I am a short and short-armed finger picking player. Getting my fat arm over Henry's bulk pressed him into my brisket right where I needed to expand to get air to sing. It was a no win situation and I was wrestling with something just a bit too big. As I practiced afterwards, It just didn't feel right anymore.

 On Friday I went down to the guitar center and traded Henry in on a Luna Oracle Dragonfly, a cutaway like Henry. (Now I know some folks like to have a collection of instruments. I like to travel light and I can only play one at a time. A trade-in deal made economic sense as well.)  My Dragonfly, she's just a little thinner, has a more pinched in waist to allow my arm a clear path to the strings, and also a thinner neck and finger-board built for my small hands. As an added bonus she has an on-board tuner. Woohoo!