Live in Richmond

Yes, my brothers! Good Live music can be hard to find in Richmond, but once you find the right place , the right band and the right crowd, it can be melodic, heavenly and bumping! Last night, we ventured out to The Camel. The Camel is a small venue known for hosting live shows near VCU's campus. I've been too a few gigs here in the past, but last night, the band was awesome.

The doors opened around 8:00pm but as usual, we were running late. I want to say we waited almost 30 minutes to get inside, but once inside we were treated to the sounds of the NO BS Brass Band. NO BS! is a Richmond, Va. band that is on some New Orleans kick with over 10 members. They combine funk,jazz,calypso, blues and yes.. "afro-beat" to create an awesome gumbo stew of vivacious sounds. I want to say most of the band members are/were students at VCU musical department at one point in time.

Last night they released their new album called "Alive in Richmond". They had well over 150 in attendance and put on an amazing show. Check them out at http://www.nobsbrass.com

March 2009 Book is LEFT TO TELL

All,

Left to Tell will be our selection for the month of March 2009 (14th day). It beat out the Human Stain which for me will be added to my GoodRead's book shelf. We are still looking for a location to conduct our session in March the 14th day so be on the look out for an email detailing the Time and place.

-Rodney

Finalists for meeting

Including Aubrey's votes, the top two vote-getters are Ta-Nahesi Coates's The Beautiful Struggle and Cornel West's Hope on a Tightrope. We'll vote at the meeting Saturday, January 17th, 5 p.m., at UR.

see you then...

Decisions, Decisions.... Time to VOTE

Reminder: we will meet this Saturday, January 17, at Ryland Hall, University of Richmond, in the usual room, at 5 p.m..

Nominations are now officially closed. See the previous post for links to Amazon.com for book descriptions, and then return to this post and vote---using the "comments" section below---for no more than three (3) of the following (listed in order of their nomination). I'll tally them Friday night, and we'll have our May book by Saturday morning. If it's a tie, we'll break that tie at the meeting:

Blonde Roots, by Bernardine Evaristo

The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood , by Ta-Nahesi Coates

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, by Barry Schwartz

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, by Bart Ehrman

Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First BlackCongressmen, by Philip Dray

Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America, by Paul Tough

Hope on a Tightrope, by Cornel West

Come on People, by Bill Cosby & Alvin Poussaint

Tough choices; good luck and godspeed with your deliberations.

NOMINATIONS are open NOW

Okay, folks. Rodney’s deal with the ladies sounds exciting, but we’ve got voting business of our own to take care of.

What do you say we meld our March meeting into the second-week-of-March meeting we’ll have with Fusion Bookclub. So I’m hereby officially opening nominations for the May meeting. As always, you are free to nominate no more than THREE books, beginning now. Please use the “comments” section below for your nominations. We’ll vote for one book, for May, next Wednesday, on January 14.

Now, just in case you’re wondering why we aren’t voting for two books this time, here’s why: I was really looking forward to voting in May for the next two books that we’d read in September and November. It’s always a struggle for me to carve time to read the November selection---I won’t speak for Hobbs, but he might well have a similar struggle---because there’s no break ahead of the meeting. For our January selection I have semester break to read it; for the March meeting I have spring break; the semester ends early enough in May for me to read the May selection; for the September meeting I have the summer. It’s only the November selection that forces me to cram an additional book into all the other reading I have to do in order to be prepared for class. But if we select the November book in MAY, then I can read that, too, over the summer. So, if you brothers don’t mind, I’d appreciate it if we could only select one book this time, for May, and then do another two-fer in May for September and November.

So: bring the nominations, mes amis. Bring them sooner rather than later, so brothers can figure out what they prefer, and we’ll vote on Wednesday. If a tie-breaker is necessary, we’ll do it at the meeting on Saturday, January 17.

Steve Coakley on the Boule

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw8EcJDazEE (PART 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELuxHKoC0Bk (PART 3)