It's become apparent that my concert-going is following a certain trend: I go to see the openers more than the featured band.

Case example: last night I went to the Blue Rodeo show at the Rosebud. But I'm infinitiely unfamiliar *before last night* with Blue Rodeo. I'd only heard of them. To be expected, they have an alt country/rock-country sorta sound. They're front man/lead singer is a shot of Dave Burke whiskey, dropped in a pint of Donnie Osmond Lager served up in a frosted beer mug (does frosted beer mug adequately describe Canadian Country/Rock?). But anyways . . . I did hear of Sarah Slean, the opener for Blue Rodeo. In fact she's one of my favorite female vocalists. She's got a beautiful, sweet, sounding voice. Maybe a bit of the Edith Piaf? I dunno ... some kind of classic voice that is beautiful, sweet and so sad sounding sometimes but always witha ring of the old soul. I think Edith Piaf had the old soul sound. I would thoroughly enjoy hearing Sarah and Rufus Wainright doing some kinda duet, on some kinda old Depression Era sounding songs ... oh yeah, they're both Canadian so who knows? It could happen. Anyways, as I understand, Blue Rodeo, who does some cool songs (Railroad is a great one), is a well established band in Toronto. They tend to pick up an artist who is up-and-coming and then let 'em air out and sun on the line. This apparently is what they're doing with Sarah Slean. I like her crazy chord changes and time signatures, too. Definitely into the more complex music structures sometimes. And she must be doing something right, cuz I heard her stuff before Blue Rodeo.

All this talk makes me think about the days of peeling 2-ply paper, settling bags of potato chips and setting the elevator buttons crooked . . . ahh, good times!

Here's another story about a Picasso piece from the NYTimes. It reads like an art history novella or something, but it happened just this week in NYC.

Sarah Lentz did a great job Friday night at the Club Cafe. keep up the good work, Sarah!!!

Tim Colbert's piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about visiting Seattle to see Todd Kriedler directing August Wilson's "How I Learned What I Learned."