I took some Japanese characters off of Ben's door "depechi modu da-ta-da..." and made a poster and then met Ben at SRN to initial my show time (11-12 Thursday nights - great time slot). I asked Priti for some CDs to review, and she loaded me up with Loscil, Lambchop, Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers, Stars of the Lid, a Teenbeat comp, and Lloyd Cole (which I noticed and asked about, she said I could take it as long as it wasn't on a major label.) Then I ran to the train station, where I met Joel and Alana, and Jonah and Sarah. Chloe stood at the station making eyes at me from several yards away, and then sat across from us on the train. We convinced Jonah and Sarah to join us at Kingdom, where we met up with Milena. The meal was the same as always, and great and cheap; my fortune said "you will be fortunate in the opportunities presented to you." Milena and I walked over to the laundry and grocery on 10th, where I bought $30 worth of rice crackers and Kosugai gummies. And then to The Troc, where Quetzal had taken the stage. They're an eight-piece "bastardized" latin band from LA fronted by a brother and sister team. He pushed the album, she stuck out her tongue and stomp-danced. They were fun, but they didn't get the crowd moving until the crowd showed up.

Milena (who was on the guest list) and I said hello to Bobby Berman, who has been to three Ozomatli concerts and Adrienne LaPierre. And then they came on. Through the audience first, marching band-style, samba whistles and bass drums and chants. The group (which no longer includes Chali 2na and Cut Chemist) is nine members, and they are ridiculously tight. All of their numbers have multiple sections, with intricate arrangements, shifting rhythms, switching instruments and styles. They only played maybe half the stuff from the first album, and they went for over two hours, so there must have been a lot of unrecorded or unreleased stuff. They made some political speeches, after one of which I was almost positive they were going to play "Coming War." It turned out to be "Cumbia de los Muertos" instead; I wonder if they thought "War" was too appropriate to play. One of their multi-percussionists sat down at the tabla, and the guitarists started to lay on the texture, and I knew it was going to hit, and when it did the whole room started bouncing up and down ("Superbowl Sundae.") There was an interesting range of people there, college kids, latinos of all ages, hippies, hip-hoppers, and an obnoxious thirtysomething couple in front of us, she in a denim jumpsuit with american flag beads on a safety pin, who Milena said must have taken ballroom dancing and salsa classes. Concerts like that are great, so much energy and groove, but I sort of feel bad paying for them in venues that have hosted the Flaming Lips and the Magnetic Fields, rather than in big outdoor festivals during the summertime.

We missed the 11, so we walked down 11th and east and south, and Milena told me about the city. We passed La Bohème, where Al and I went on our first mesa. Back in Market East, Elaine appeared, made up and hair styled and chic, having just come from a Latin dance club. It sounds like her life is quite stressful though, living in a home for disturbed kids and commuting an hour and a half to North Philly to teach at a charter school. Hopefully we can see each other somewhat regularly though. The ABC house is right down the street from here. It was Kent's birthday, and Sarah Ed, Jessie Coleman, Rebecca, Chang, Amalle, and Mariah were hanging out and drinking and smoking and talking post-modernism. Chang and I talked Faust and Dälek and Public Enemy and experimental jazz. He knows more about all of them than I do, but he invited me to come listen to his records.

we get history, biology and maths
we want poetry and music and some laughs
and I don't think it's an awful lot to ask