Meet the Boss

Ronaldo called yesterday evening to ask if I was going to be around if he stopped by. He was just leaving work and, since I was going to be around, he said that he'd be by shortly and, cryptically, that I could "meet the boss". You see I had a couple Paul McCartney shows for him. One was a nice-sounding soundboard from 1990 while the other was the show from Milwaukee last October that he and his daughter had attended. About a half an hour later my doorbell rang and I opened the door to see him standing there clutching a calendar and a brown paper bag. I let him inside and I gave him the CDs. He then presented me with a 2006 Peace Corps calendar and pulled a bottle out of bag.



I saw that by "boss" he meant Black Boss Porter, a very potent Polish brew. At 18.8 proof, I'm thinking that it'll keep me warm & cozy one night soon. We chatted for a bit but he had to get home. While we shot the bull out on the porch, Anders showed up to reclaim a batch of his CDs that have been in my possession for far too long. He'd lent me some Archie Shepp, Trane, and Roscoe Mitchell. Since I'd had them for so long, I burnt him a whole lotta live shows including Monk, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Art Tatum, Miles, et al. Anders not only loves listening to jazz but he's also a practitioner – in the Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Sextet. He said that a dream of his had come true last year when he flew to Munich, Germany to record an album with Roscoe Mitchell and Evan Parker. The city of Munich had commissioned Mitchell and Parker to compose and record two songs and Anders got invited to the session. (For anyone not in the know, Mitchell lives here in Madison. You can sample his music at my podcast.) Anders said that he had a blast. He got to hang in Germany and record an album with two of his musical heroes and the Transatlantic Art Ensemble. The album is being mixed right now and will be released by ECM Records later this year.

Today is going by fairly slowly. People can't remember passwords and a group of VPN users are having problems. The fun just never stops. Jason and I made our weekly trek to Mad City Music yesterday. I bought Nirvana's first album, Bleach, and Van der Graaf Generator's H to He Who Is the Only One. A bit of an odd combo, admittedly, but two great bands nonetheless. I've also been acquiring some new shows. A new Genesis soundboard recording was put into the trading arena on Christmas Day – 3 January 1977. It's quite a good recording and a spirited performance, Chester Thompson's third ever with the band. I also grabbed a show by the Warsaw Village Band. It's a performance from 2001 which was broadcast on Polish radio. Lemme tell ya, it rocks! Well, as much as Polish folk music can. Really good stuff. It'll find its way onto my podcast soon.

While I don't have any plans for the weekend carved into stone, I am supposed to make pierogi for Mel at some point and she sent me an e-mail demanding them a couple weeks ago and then gently reminded me of my obligations on New Year's eve. I should contact her to find out exactly what she wants me to make.

In addition, The Dulcinea and I will get together at some point. I am in media res of a period of abstention. No ejaculation for your humble narrator until the weekend. The last time I had the pleasure of release was on New Year's Day and it is getting very hard (ahem) to restrain myself. The Dulcinea and I had a date on Tuesday. We went to Maharaja for some carry-out and then rented a flick, Les Rivières pourpres (Crimson Rivers 2). Jean Reno kicks arse and the first installment was good fun. This second movie was vaguely The Da Vinci Codeish with its conspiracy involving an ancient holy relic and, to be honest, had a rather generic story. But I like Reno and Christopher Lee was the bad guy! While he didn't have much screentime, Lee made the most of it. Technically it was great too. The mise en scene was very stylized, especially in the use of color. Depending on the location, the shots had an overall tint to them. Plus light sources were overexposed. Thusly windows were really bright and glowed preternaturally. And the action sequences were shot with a small shutter giving them a hyper-realistic look and feel ala the battle sequences from Saving Private Ryan. For the shootout towards the end, bullet tracers were CGId in making the scene just look really cool and the action more intense. It was by no means an artsy film but it was great fun. Lying in bed with her afterwards was a difficult proposition but we managed to keep me on the straight and narrow. This weekend cannot come soon enough.