Auld Lang Syne ROCKS!

jeez, I am running so ridiculously far behind again. I still haven't written about the Moyseis gig, the Lions restructuring, my visit to awesome Batucaxe in Tucson, then the INCREDIBLY FUN samba class I got to teach yesterday, the Z'Bumba gig last night and the terrifically useful Lions swing rehearsal today; and, worse still, I've never even written all the updates about CBC; in fact, fer chrissake, never finished my report of the 2010 Carnaval. I believe I left my story of Carnaval suspended dramatically at the moment when I'd just finished parading with Imperio Serrano and was dashing out the door to Cubango, and there it ended. (I did post the results later, but never had time to write the story of any of the parades that I played in -Cubango, Monobloco and Banga.)

But first this update! Just to say, Pink Martini's Christmas cd, called "Joy To The World", is almost out, and I just noticed that on Amazon.com you can preview a short snippet of all the tracks on the cd.

Including (*ahem*) the song "Auld Lang Syne", the last and therefore most important track on the cd. And the snippet of Auld Lang Syne that they have chosen to feature for preview, on amazon.com, is the very moment when (*AHEM*), THE CAIXAS ENTER, which of course is the single most important moment in the entire cd.

This caixa moment features, of course, ME! ta-daa!!!!!!

(and, oh, yeah, perhaps there were some other caixa players there too... perhaps they were a wee bit closer to the microphone than I was... and ... well, yeah, probably playing better too.... ok ok ok, it was Randy, John and Esteban. And ME!!!! way in the background, but I'm there!)

Doesn't it sound purty? Doesn't it sound cool? I recommend you listen to the caixa entry about ten times in a row on Amazon and then pre-order a few dozen of the cds, so that you can play the caixa entry moment over and over again in different parts of your house, on infinite loop on multiple cd players scattered throughout your house. Perhaps, eventually, you might wish to hear the rest of the cd as well, but really, "Auld Lang Syne" is what it's all about.

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One last note. I spent much of Saturday night (post-samba class, pre-Z'bumba) reading my past blog entries and was startled at the AMAZING! FREQUENCY! of CAPITALIZED LETTERS and EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!! Because in my normal, non-samba life, I am actually really a lot more laid-back than that. My emails these days are models of calm, crisp professional efficiency. ("Yes, can write sea turtle grant - K" "No, could not find the bird. BTW grizzly on trail" - K") But apparently when I am writing about samba, I JUST HAVE TO USE EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! And everything has to be IN CAPITAL LETTERS!!!! BECAUSE I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!! ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!! Someday I'll go back and edit all that stuff down to some semblence of rationality... but perhaps it's more accurate the way it is? Samba just kind of does that to you. You think you're a normal person and then you go and join a samba bateria, and the next thing you know, exclamation points are pouring out of your ears.