Bookshelf:

Currently reading:

• Theodore Sturgeon, Thunder and Roses

Next up:

1. Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife
2. Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
3. Analog, March 2001 issue
4. John Callahan, Will the Real John Callahan Please Stand Up?
5. Dave Barry, Big Trouble
6. Nancy Kress, Beggars in Spain
7. Robertson Davies, Fifth Business
8. Barry Hughart, The Story of the Stone
9. Barry Hughart, Eight Skilled Gentlemen
10. Derek Nelson, Off the Map: The Curious Histories of Place Names

Swing Band

For the last year or so Cafe Borrone has featured a Dixieland jazz band most Friday nights called the Cafe Borrone All-Stars. They're pretty good, and for the first few months I enjoyed them. But as time passed I enjoyed them less: They took up valuable seating space on a crowded night, and their songs never seemed to vary much. Plus, Dixieland isn't a form of jazz I'm especially fond of. Eventually, I mostly stopped going to Borrone on Fridays.

(Aside: Why'd they call themselves "all-stars", I wonder? It's a rather dated term, making me think of the 1930s and 40s, and it implies that each member of the group is a star in his own right. Is this true? If so, surely they could have found a better venue than Borrone? No, probably it's just hyperbole.)

Tonight I braved the din and headed up for some reading (see list at left). Well, there was a band there tonight, but it wasn't the All-Stars.

This group was a five-piece swing group, with guitar, sax, (upright) bass and drums, and a female vocalist fronting the unit.

I've been getting marginally more interested in swing music recently, and besides that their first (instrumental) number made me sit up and notice, and it was really catchy and the sax player was quite good.

Their vocalist had that old-time torch singer quality to her voice, and she stood behind a big shiny microphone. A redhead, she wasn't a classic beauty (a la Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys), but she was cute, and she knew how to glance and move to use her cuteness, and how to front a band. It would have helped a bit if her mike had been a bit louder, though, since her words - especially her monologues between songs - were often difficult to make out.

Overall, the band was really good, with a lengthy set of songs, and a lot of enthusiasm and skill. It was a pleasant surprise to the evening. Maybe I'll get tired of them in a few weeks (assuming I keep going to Borrone on Fridays, which obviously isn't certain these days!), but for now they're a welcome change. Heck, maybe they'll graduate to a larger venue soon!

The list of books to the left is an idea I shamelessly stole from Columbine, though I did ask her first, and she says it's probably not an original idea anyway.

I like lists. Lists, lists, lists.

Potlatch this weekend. And Monique and I are hoping to fit some time together in as well.