date night

so my sweetie is in the middle of a two-week break from school (she's a speech-language pathologist at a school for multi-disabled kids, which some ppl would think was a bummer gig but she'd have none other). this means that she can do stuff that entails hanging out late on school nights. and i've been meaning to get my lazy ass out from behind the puter in the evening times. so the recent spate of tol'able weather has worked out advantageously. instead of driving, we be walking to lots of our fave spots to hang which are a coupla miles from la casa.

this does a coupla things besides making me feel and sleep better. when you're on foot, you just naturally notice things that you don't when you're in the car. you're more aware of yr surroundings, and you can detect changes in 'em that you wouldn't if you were zipping by w/yr eye (hopefully) on the road ahead, other cars, etc. it makes you, um, more engaged in yr environment. which i see as a good thing -- better than living yr whole life inside yr own head.

so last night we walked up to fred's for the third time in as many days (thursday: checkin' out redheaded bluesman dru webber in his natch'l [read: acoustic / solo] environment; friday: eating terry's phenomenal roast duck in a wine reduction sauce, observing the new decor with strings o' lights hanging on the new fence and "rustic flagpoles" providing enough heat to keep the patio open until it freezes, or maybe even after, while digging saint frinatra's sounds and schmoozing danny chacko and jozef bobola [who weren't playing but came to hang after playing at the modern art museum with saxman johnny guadarrama] into maybe coming out to the little wreckroom jam next week [jozef to danny: "if we do this, _no eight notes -- only sixteenth notes!" -- sounds like i need to prac a bit this w-e]) to dig james hinkle with lee allen on bass, gunzi trevino on drums, and my fave ivory-tickler, professor robert cadwallader, on keys. i once played w/perfesser catwalladoo in a band where 3/5 of the guys thought his name was robert "cat" waller, hence their wondering "where's 'cat'?" anytime he was late for a gig. it's gratifying to know that he still doesn't rehearse, even more so that his classic blues pianner and hammond b-3 sounds have only gotten more sublime since the last time i peeped him onstage. these days, james is adding more jazzy picking to his already eclectic (a la doug sahm or the juke jumpers) mix of jump blues, swing, rockabilly, and whatever else suits his fancy, one reason why his recent straight-ahead blues? cd has taken up semi-permanent residency in the player at la casa.

lacking the scratch for the cover to see the southern rawk three-piece honky immediately after hinkle, we stopped by blockbuster to cop a movie, then headed up to sardine's to hear byron gordon play bass with johnny case. also on the stand last night: saxophonist art castillo, a sardine's waiter who apparently saved the day at johnny's recent cd release party for love's bitter rage when sylvester jones, who played on the cd, proved to be unavailable the night of the event. (other highspots of that night at arts fifth avenue, per johnny: the percussion duets between joey carter and mondo drummers honcho eddie dunlap, and an impressive and highly musical trap set solo by carter.) seriously, this castillo cat bears watching. for a young muso, he has a wonderful historical sense; you can hear lotsa pre-bop influences like ben webster (such a tone!) and lester young in his improvs. johnny sez you can now cop the cd at record town, and shortly, online at cdbaby.

after that, we finished out the night at the wreck room, where we learned that graham richardson _didn't_ take the test to appear on jeopardy at the state fair yesterday. teevee's loss...

so tonight, we'll have to pry ourselves away from dr. paul slavens' show on 90.1 kera-fm to tune into the good show on 88.7 ktcu-fm at 10pm so we can hear the rawkin' me-thinks' unique brand of buffoonery and call in to demand that they play "god bless haltom city," the rawk anthem we've always known they had in 'em and number one on the hit parade around our house. after that, we'll head over to the black dog to hear dave karnes play the sunday jazz (if he doesn't sub out after crashing bill pohl and kristi bowsher's wedding -- congrats, kids). gotta remember, too, that on friday, october 21st, the good show will be celebrating its 10th anniversary at the black dog with a bill that includes goodwin. that's only four days shy of two years since i met my sweetie at the very same venue for the very same event with the very same band. how time flies.