Musical Mayhem at Freight & Salvage

The Lady In The Persian Hat and I had messy but good barbecue at Everette and Jones, a divy little take-out joint near San Pablo and University. The medium sauce was sufficiently gum tingling and spicy for me, Ellen went for the hot. The only downside was it was too crowded inside and one has to turn down panhandlers outside.

The reason we were eating in Berkeley in the first place was because we then hit Freight and Salvage to hear Luminescent Orchestrii and the Fishtank Ensemble:
http://www.fishtankensemble.com/ (I was pleased to see I can find them on iTunes)
http://www.lumii.org/ (I was even more pleased to see I can download directly from their website).

A weirder melange of world instruments and styles would be hard to find, but these two groups make it work. In particular, Fishtank's Fabrice Martinez (violin), Doug Smolens (guitar) and Mike Penny (shamisen - shami-what? Yes, shamisen) are virtuoso-quality players of their respective instruments.

Personal faves include the steamy "Knockin'" by the Luminescent Orchestrii and Fishtank Ensemble's attack on Mozart's "Rondo alla Turka," though Ursula Knudsen and Penny were impressive on the Japanese folk song "Ringo Bushi." (One of the reasons I haven't even begun to attempt trying to sing Japanese songs is that I can't sound like that!)

At the end of the show, both bands grabbed instruments and charged into the audience to play two rousing encores.

Much fun was had. I was even home before midnight, but I'm exhausted - and it's payroll day.

Antidote for invisibility

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.