Taking Up Serpents Again

One of the great joys of being back in Boston is the ability take yoga classes. As with so many things, doing it in a group, rather than by yourself as I have been for months, intensifies and buoys the experience. We often get to things together that we never get to on our own. Darcy mentioned it recently in the postmortem to his last gig:

“…one of the biggest rewards of running a big band is the chance to have your music realized by a staggering variety of incredibly talented musicians who each bring their own personality to bear on the music. (Actually, (bassist) Ike (Sturm) emailed me after the gigs to say: "It's so great to have an excuse for the community to congregate and make music together," which pretty much made my year.)”

For all the advantages, and all the community that the hivemind can create, its no substitute for real people in real time. The Buddha, no fool when it came to matters of happiness, taught Three Refuges for the noble seeker- the Buddha (God/Creative Consciousness/Divinity/callitwhatyoulike), the Dharma (holy/wisdom teachings) and the Sangha (the community). You can’t have too much sangha, ever.

To that end, why not build community around good music? Saturday offers two goodies to discerning Bostonians:

Jonatha Brooke @ the Hatch Shell, Saturday 5pm. Part of the Riverfest, put on by local AAA radio hub WXRV. I was hipped to Jonatha’s first incarnation in The Story about ten years ago, and fell in love with that music. Her work since they broke up has been a little more uneven (particularly on her last album, Back to the Circus, featuring a couple of fantastic songs- "No Net Below", "Better After All", both audible on her site), but she’s more than worth a listen anytime, and is always good live. Brandi Carlisle and James Hunter are also on the bill, but I have no ideal who the hell they are. I’m not crazy about just any singer-songwriter.

Curtis Eller @ the Lily Pad, 7:30 pm. Old friend Curtis, America’s leading exporter of Banjo Music for Funerals (his term, not mine), makes one of his occasional trips to Boston to dole out morbid songs about Elvis’ ghost, carrier pidgeons, and raging elephants. Good (and not-so good) fun will be had by all, I humbly assure you. With the Ambitious Orchestra, who promise a future opera about Dungeons and Dragons on their website. Curtis has always had, er, unusual twinbills.