On Friday night, the music was callin', so I left work a little early and went to see elizabeth! duetting with Dan Tepfer on piano. As it turned out, she came upon me while I was a standing a few yards away from the Rockwood Music Hall, preparing a 'tweet' from the iPhone; we sorta recognized each other, then confirmed it, and we said hello and walked in together. I had a pair of Original Sins (they're made in Vermont, but I only ever seem to find them in the Lower East Side) while unwinding to elizabeth!'s incredible voice and tromboning and Dan's great improvisations on the ivories.

They played for close to an hour, then she made the rounds, and told me that she had two more gigs to play tonight! Wow... I stuck around for a bit to listen to Eric Margan and the Red Lions, who rocked harder than I was expecting; also, the girl on flute was pretty damned cute. Yes, I'm a poet, though I didn't know it. I left after half an hour, though, and made my way to the National Underground...

...where I'd planned to see Jennifer Logue, who was scheduled to go on at 8 PM. I'd arrived early, of course, and was pleasantly surprised to see Christian Pedersen, a left-handed guitarist, on stage with Bethany Goldstein, his partner in the Christo Bethkaya Project. They were very entertaining and amusing, and her harmonica skills were quite impressive, as were his on the acoustic. I really enjoyed the back end of their set, while downing a Newcastle (I didn't realize that I could get an Original Sin even here until after I'd ordered the beer), but the downstairs area pretty much emptied out after they'd finished, and when I finally departed after 9, there was still no sign of Jennifer. I'll have to try to catch her another time.

Saturday's weather was on-again, off-again. I woke to sunshine, but the day got cloudier and darker, and we got some rain. Then some more sun. Then some more rain. By the time I left for the train station to travel to Hoboken, it was dry again; I picked up "Jace," a Jetta from Zipcar, and headed northward to pick up one of my dad's birthday presents, a new laser printer, at Office Depot. It started raining again as I started back home, and I got to see a wonderful sight from the car, a full rainbow, end to end. The rain stopped again in time for me to buy a six-pack of Samuel Adams Pale Ale and a bottle of the Little Penguin's Pinot Grigio from a cute blonde at the local liquor store. I spent the night catching up on the episodes of "The Sarah Jane Adventures," "Doctor Who," and "Battlestar Galactica" I'd TiVoed the night before. "Sarah Jane" is definitely geared more towards kids, but as an old-school "Doctor Who" fan, I have fond memories of Miss Smith (and K-9!) and so I've been watching the new show. It's not bad, it's just a bit juvenile. Speaking of juvenile, I also watched bits and pieces of "Heat Wave" and "Alien Lockdown." Why is it that Sci Fi can make such great television series, but produces such cheesy science fiction movies? Oh, and for the record, if someone has to ask, "Are you sure this is a good idea?," especially relating to aliens, it usually isn't.

I woke up bright and early this morning and made myself a slew of pancakes. I only ate about a quarter of the slew, though, as I was going to my parents' for dinner and couldn't afford to do so with a full stomach. After breakfast, I grudgingly decided to get some laundry done, and after that, I headed south with "Jace" and brought along the beer, the wine, the printer, a CD, and a birthday card. It was nice to be heading south on the Parkway with the sun shinin' down and the windows (partly) open, and when "Runnin' Down A Dream" came on the radio, well, I had to blast that mother.  :-D

My dad liked the printer and the CD very much, and my parents and I had a great barbecue dinner with my aunt Zenir and her husband Danny. I'm still full. Heh.

I liked Monday night better, when I saw elizabeth! rock out the jazz with her band at Banjo Jim's. I'd never walked through Tompkins Square Park before, certainly not in the dark, but there was no riot goin' on as I headed to Avenue C. The small joint was mostly empty as I walked in and ordered an Original Sin hard cider, but the band was there, setting up. Turned out that there was some technical difficulty and the chanteuse's microphone wasn't microphoning; after ten or fifteen minutes of fiddling with the cabling and the settings, it was decided to proceed without it.

By this time, a few more people had come in, and we could all hear elizabeth! and the rest of the band just fine. They played a fine set! I took a few pictures, but the lighting was subdued (a little too much so at first) and I felt that using flash would've been thoughtless, so I took 'em dark. I think the two I've posted turned out OK... Fresh from the rebuke from Tatiana for not having said hello to her at her show two weeks back, I made a point of introducing myself to elizabeth! after the set was over.  :)  I'd have liked to have stayed for the next group, but of course I had work to do back at home...

Yesterday morning, the long-lost black squirrel put in an appearance. Yesterday afternoon, I learned that my friend Dawn gave birth to a baby boy, Dylan, Monday night! And last night, while walking back from giving Mike Gravel a nominating vote, I realized for the first time that Valentine's Day lights are now a disturbing trend. What, we're going to be decorating the houses and putting up lights for every holiday now? "Flag Day's coming up, honey, what do you want to do this year?" Sheesh.

Summer Glau, who played the semi-psychotic youth River Tam in the growing-on-me "Firefly" (yes, I got my DVDs back), is back as Cameron the Terminator in "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," and my, how she's grown up. She still looks young (well, she still is young), but she doesn't look as fragile as she did in those first few "Firefly" episodes, and she's quite an attractive woman now. Personally, if I were John Connor, I'd spend less time running and more time trying to determine whether all Cameron's I/O ports are plug-and-play. So to speak. Ahem. I think this series holds some promise. We'll see how it goes...



L.C. was definitely happy that I sat on the couch to watch the show last night and tonight. Even when I am home for more than a few hours these days, it seems I've got work issues to deal with, or my own things to do on the computer(s), so it was nice to relax a bit and keep the cat company. He's still adjusting to the idea that his word (well, plaintive mew) isn't law around here, merely a strong suggestion.

Just an hour or so after sending elizabeth! my regrets about not being able to go see her in a spur-of-the-moment set at Rockwood this evening, I got home to find that my autographed copy of her CD had arrived in the mail. Good stuff...! I don't listen to enough jazz, really, though I did just buy some Allan Holdsworth on the iTunes Music Store. Man, that guy can play guitar... elizabeth! is very talented herself, and I definitely do want to take in another show.