Notes From Spain

Hey all,

We found this site: http://notesfromspain.com (via a podcast I found on iTunes). It is maintained by a British guy who has been living in Spain for 7 years, after only planning to stay for a month!  The podcasts (26+) are insights into life in Spain from a non-native point of view, but sometimes includes dialogue from his wife who is a native of Madrid. Plus he has photos that go along with some of them.  Check it out!

An evening at Brandt's...

Rushed home from work today to pick MrsLacubriousJonez and head down to Growler's to meet LacubriousToo and MrLacubriousJonez for dinner. Alas, Growler's was too crowded so we decided to head to Delmar (at night) and eat at Brandt's before catching Javier's show at the same locale.

We worked our way through a pitcher or two (or three?) of Warsteiner Dunkel (yum!) and veggie burgers, pasta pesto (double-yum) and cashew chicken....forgetting to order our appetizer of Spinach Dip! The owner was nice enough to seat us where we could catch the show and our waiter was very attentive.

Javi, along with David and Carl, played three sets. The acoustics were a little rough, due to the hard surfaces in the restaurant, but the show was great and even included a birthday song dedication to yours truly! A la' Lluvias en Abril!

We saw several Javi Fans that we recognized from other shows over the past year (has it been nearly a year already?!) and everyone was really enjoying the music along with the beer, wine and spirits abundantly flowing!

All in all a great night and the only minor mishap was Cinder-fella (aka LacubriousToo) losing his shoe, but only for a moment.....Talk about kickin' up your heels! Hay Carumba!

Today is my birthday...

Today I received this from Ed, Joanne, Holly, and Ryan

Happy Birthday
Who needs candles.
You can't blow these out, but they are sure better to take off the cake.
Happy Birthday Kim.

Also the following items were bestowed on behalf of Bill:

And the card! So Cute!

A Happy Birthday Singing Phone Call from Mom.
A Happy Birthday Phone Call from my Brother, Kev.
A Happy Birthday phone Call from Dad, Thanks for letting everyone in the office know!

And this email card from Ed & Joanne:

Darrin took me out to dinner at The Hawthorne Inn and gave me a DVD:

From Kevin & Anica - Some Lucky Scratchers!

Does this photo look better with the black background?

Giant fly Attempts Landing at Lambert Airport!

Dialogues...

...via email...
L2: Hey, Are you listening to music?
L1: On and Off, Why?
L2: I just wondered. I have been listening to Peter Gabriel, but if you get a chance, check out the very first part of JMB's "Step Into My Place". Does that sound like a door to you?
L1: It DOES sound like a door! What's up with that?
L2: I guess it's someone stepping into his place....
L1: LOL...That should go on the list of 10 (100?) questions for Javier!

Final at Finale'

Saturday December 17, the Lacubrious Crew attended the last two shows of Javier Mendoza Band.

Here is the message Javi posted on his message board concerning the breakup of the band:

Jim, Moisés and David will be performing with me one last time at Finale in Clayton as a band. Come check it out! After this show I'll be performing with other musicians as well as David and Carl. Jim and Moisés are pursuing their other project full time. The JMB crew is parting, but I'll be performing solo, or with other musicians until I'm no longer in this world. Javier Mendoza is stronger than ever!

I am currently working on a brand new DVD and cd with new songs and in the summer I'll be going to Spain to work on a new CD. So keep on coming to shows and picking up my music, because without you I'd be doing something else!

Thanks as always for your continued support! You are the reason I'm still here! I'll see at upcoming shows in 2005 and 2006.

Having developed a rapport with Javi and the guys, and experiencing a great number of shows over the last year, we were very sad but not completely surprised when we heard the news. Over the last few JMB shows we noticed that attendance was starting to fall off and at the last Cicero's show, the opening band "Fundamental Elements" had a large group that did not stay for JMB. I think this show had a real effect on Javi. I don't think the attendance problem has anything to do with the band members, or their skills. I personally think that Javi's target market has been changing over the last couple of years and becoming more mature. Overwhelmingly the people purchasing tickets to Cicero's and Blueberry Hill are in their early to mid 20s (at least at the shows we have attended). This, in my opinion, is why Javi's solo and duo shows are doing so well at places like Erato Wine Bar.

That being said, ON TO FINALE'

We started the evening at our favorite pub Growlers, after a great dinner and a couple of outstanding beers, we headed to the Finale' restaurant and Music venue. We arrived about 7:00pm picked up our tickets (for both shows) and were promptly escorted to our table. The venue was beautiful, and the acoustics were better than any other venue we have visited!

First off I have to say that the shows were both INCREDIBLE! This evening was in the top 1% of JMB shows that I have experienced. Everyone seemed very relaxed and ready to play. At the end of the first set , which went by way too fast, we talked to Jim, Moisés, David, Julie and Andrea for a few minutes and moved to our new table for the second show. When we got settled in and ordered a drink, Javi dropped by the table to bring us a "surprise" CD of some of the early versions of his songs and a few unpublished tracks. Just before the set started we were joined by Steve Leslie and his girl friend Adrianne. Steve is also a very talented musician and singer /songwriter who had not heard JMB before.

Tom James took some great pictures of the show:

(Sorry, the pictures previously listed here are no longer available)



Towards the end of the set Javi dedicated the song "Join the Party"” to the Lacubrious Crew. After the show we introduced Steve to the band, talked to Javi for a few more minutes and headed home.

Goodbye JMB, you will be missed.

To Javi, may 2006 be your best year yet!!!!

Columbia - Return to Music Cafe....

So after our last experience at the music café, you'd think we would never return...but here we are again. Let me explain; we're back in town with plans to see Javi at the Cherry St. Artisan on Friday. Being we are here a day early, we decide to hit our favorite pizza joint in Columbia, Shakspeare's Pizza. Lo and behold, who do we spot but STENDEK! He's a musician we saw at the Savoy way back. Sure enough he is playing at the Blue Fugue, formerly the Music Café. Thus we now have plans for the evening!

STENDEK was entertaining for the first part of the show, but then he turned to "mixing" / DJ-ing or whatever you call it. We listended for awhile but the smoke was killing us so headed to the hotel to get some much needed rest and get ready for Friday!

Very special yarn...

LacubriousToo thinks this is creepy, but I think it's pretty cool!

http://vipfibers.com/

Blogpins

Check out this site: http://blogpins.com/blogpins.html

When to draw the line between work-life and home-life...

Either my brother got creative with his riding lawn mower, or the city of Mowtown has a new law man!

....And yes it even has working police-style lights!!!

Irish Ale! Gimme Some!

What a Cheery Photo, courtesy of my Uncle Ed!

Live from Erato Wine Bar!!!

So HOW COOL IS IT to be surfing on my new wireless Axim PDA and listening
to Javier and enjoying a beer with good friends? AWESOME!!!!!

We enjoyed a yummy meal at Mangia, an italian place here on S. Grand Ave.
Then headed down the street to Erato to listen to Javier's Acoustic set.
We're celebrating Mr.Lacubrious's b-day weekend! Erato is a pretty nice
wine/beer/dessert bar. Javier sounds pretty good. The acoustics are not too
great, plus we had to sit in the back, but all in all, very pleasant. Even
though the guys ordered a hefe-weizen that was too clovie, so
Mrs.Lacubrious traded her Newcastle and drank their rejects!!!

Chicago - Day Two - Continued...

Onward - post Goose Island...

• Gave $5 to some woman who was $4.83 short to get her towed vehicle back.
• Browsed the Crate & Barrel Outlet.
• Wished we had a video of MrLacubrious in the wheelchair lift...too funny!
• "Bite my ass."
• Drove back to the Hotel, via Roosevelt Ave.
• "I know this town like the back of my hand..."
• "You're talking out the ass you want bit!"
• Nap time & re-energize
• Coyotes Mexican Grill
• Gin & Tonics
• Cicadas!!!

PLUS

Does NOT equal this...

MrLacubrious, you are our hero...

Chicago - Day Two - Fun in the Sun!

We spent a little time on Friday night trying to decide how we wanted to hit the sites. We decided to head right into Chicago. So after breakfasting at the hotel and plotting our trip (and me grabbing the maps!) we headed east and picked up Lake Shore Drive just South of the city. The sight of Lake Michigan was awesome. The water was a fabulous shade of blue-green that day. Tons of people were out walking, biking, running, dogwalking, etc. We stopped at Navy Pier (Can you say U-Turn?). Which turned out to be a pretty nice tourist attraction. Lots of shops, pubs, and fast food joints, harbor cruises lines, river cruise lines, entertainment and the like that you would expect. Most impressive was the Stained Glass Museum.

Beautiful...

What the heck is he doing?!


We took a 30 minute Shoreline Cruise around the harbor...it was sunny and pleasant and we got a great view of the city.

And Navy Pier...

Even Better...


Another view...

A lighthouse and blue water...



All of us on the pier...




After soaking up as much atmosphere at the pier, we decided to head out again. We originally tried to get to Uncommon Ground, but Wrigley Field traffic and parking proved too much for us to handle at that point. So it was renavigation (always fun) to Goose Island Brewpub. We were disappointed with the beer, but the food was pretty tasty. We were in the vicinity of Lincoln Avenue, which is the venue for the street festival that JMB was going to be playing on Sunday. So we had a better idea of where we would be headed...always a good idea with this group!

***A little side note here. MrLacubrious got a pretty good dose of the sun on this outing. Enough that he was being referred to as MrCrispy by yours truly. Oddly enough when he unwrapped a Dove Dark Chocolate later that night the little saying on the inside said "You know what? You look good in red."

Chicago....And Other Navigational Terrors - Continued

7/29/2005...
"CD's in the car are one big ole tight pain in the ass!" That's why the Ipod is so much better. WKIM is our favorite station....and the 6 hour car ride to Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois was so much more pleasant. We arrived around dinnertime on Friday night...luckily we had excellent directions to the hotel. Oh wait, no we didn't. But not to worry, our navigational skills prevailed and between the LacubriousOnes 10 year old memories of traveling the same roads and the Jonezes driving and having the hotel's actual street address..we arrived with barely a u-turn at all!

Weary from travel, we freshened up at the hotel, but not until after a game of musical rooms, since, once again, online travel booking yielded us with rooms 3 miles from each other. (Even after MrsJonez called the hotel to make sure everything was good to go!) None of us likes to stumble too far to their room. We did get a couple of free in room movies for our trouble!

We headed to a local brew-pub known as Anyway's. A couple rounds of beer and some decent grub and we were ready to hit the town! Or so we thought...you see we needed to buy some beer for the room, and bothallofus forgot to bring speakers for the Ipod for in-room listening pleasure. So we decided to find a Walmart. We first stopped at Dominicks Grocery and selected some decent brews, headed back to the hotel to stow them in the fridge, then headed back out to find Walmart. We were going to ask the front desk for directions, but MrJonez jumped on google maps while stowing the beer and decided he could find it.....because "he knows this town like the back of his hand". I beg to differ. I will say no more on this topic. Other than this, 22 is not Butterfield and only by the grace of the navigational gods did we get the speakers.

Chicago....And Other Navigational Terrors

7/29/2005
Ahhh..Another trip, another JMB concert, another funny comment before we even get out of the driveway?! Now that MrsJonez has an Ipod and an FM transmitter, we're all anxious to get that hooked up before hitting the road. MrJones gets all freaked out when MrsJones attempt to wipe a bit of dust out of the cars power outlet dongle/splitter/thingy. He apparently was concerned for her well being (How bad can a 12volt system shock really be? Although, I hear it's the amps not the volts that you have to worry about...) Anyhow, MrsJonez defends her actions by saying;"I didn't put IT ALL THE WAY in there, I was just cleaning it!" Thus the theme of the trip is set!

UPDATE: Parties in the Park...

So the Grey Eagle (Budweiser) girls (aka - the suntanned chicks) finally got around to uploading the pictures from our Clayton - Parties in the Park Outing to the Grey Eagle website. They sure took their sweet time about it! Like wasn't that a month ago?! To their credit, they did get a pretty nice picture of our group...


The rest of the pictures from that day are on the Grey Eagle website, under Events & Promotions...

Mr. A-Z Released TODAY!!!

The latest album from Jason Mraz was released today. I, of course, preordered mine from iTunes! So it is waiting for me to download tonight! You've probably heard the title track on the radio already. I really like it and can't wait to hear the rest of the album. Check out his website, if you get time. It's pretty cool...

Gone to the Dogs!

Thanks to Mrs LacubriousJonez for this one!

Bogey has crashed the Wedding Crashers movie trailer.
Click here to watch it:
http://www.weddingcrashersmovie.com/crashthistrailer/index.htm?id=98049

Trailer Crashers

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking when you see the title!

I have no idea if "Wedding Crashers" is going to be a good movie or just some goofy show, but they have the funniest web app on their site! It lets you upload one or two pictures which replace the heads of one or two of the actors in the movie trailer. Hilarious good fun! Check it out here....

If you're in the mood for a laugh, turn up the volume and view our versions:

MrMrsLacubrious
MrMrsJonez

Late Night Wednesday

We (Mr&Mrs Lacubrious and Mr&Mrs Jonez) decided to do a little mid-week blowing off of steam...Mr Lacubrious was quite cranky and desperately needed a beer and some food after a grueling day of server upgrading.


So we all headed to Aldo's (one of our Italian places), hoping to accomplish a few things:

Beer
Food
Coolness (It's 100 degrees outside!)

Well, you know what they say, 2 outta 3 ain't bad....The AC was out! But the Beer was cold, so we stuck it out, had a couple rounds, noshed on some good grub (Primavera Salad, Baby!), then headed back to our house. The guys had a project to work on (can you say wireless access point?.................I knew you could!) so us gals sat on the couch and chit-chatted (over a beer of course!) for THREE & A HALF HOURS...on a "school" night no less!!! Needless to say, we're all a little sleep - deprived today! We are looking forward to our Saturday night out, though! Javier Mendoza Band at Llewelyn's Pub.........An Ice Cold Beer and a Deep Fried Pickle await us as well as an evening of fine music!

Odor Eliminating Light Bulbs!

What a bright idea!

http://www.fresh2.com/index.html

Posting Via Email

Just had to test the Blog Feature that allows me to post via
email.......How cool is that?!?!

Parties in the Park (Part II)

Another week, another great JMB show.

We arrived about 3:15 even before some of the vendors, grabbed the spot with the best view of the stage, and started noshing. The big problem with getting there so early is that the beer stands didn’t open until 5:00! The even worse part was watching vendors walk by carrying beer! As Lacubrious Kurtis says: “This is just wrong!!! Where is the love!!!”.

Javi and David sat and talked with us for a while before the show and did a little noshing. It’s amazing how talkative people get when you give them food. This was the first time we had a chance to talk to David at any length. We found out that he worked for a while at the same place LacubriousOne is currently employed, and that he sometimes plays bass for Candy Coburn’s band.


JMB @ Parties in the Park 


Mr. Lacubrious Jonez 

The show was great, as usual. There were a lot of people there but most of them could have cared less that there was any music at all. What this meant was that we (The Lacubrious Society) had to whistle, clap, and whoop loud enough to make up for it. We wouldn’t want the band to think they were not appreciated. The big problem we had during the show was keeping Mrs. Lacubrious Jonez from walking around taking down umbrellas. She even got a warning from the band.


True Music Fans 
AKA, The Middle Section


David and a Future Bass Player 

After the show Mr. Jonez swiped the banner from the front of the stage and had all the band members sign it. If you look closely you can see it laying next to David on the stage in the picture below. Then we loaded up and headed to Llywelyn's Pub in Webster Groves to have some dinner and discuss possible July vacation plans.


JMB after the show with Mr. Jonez 

Waiting for the Sun...

LacubriousOne and yours truly attended the JMB performance at the "BUD LIGHT ROCKIN' ON THE LANDING" event. When we got there everyone was "Waiting for the Rain to Fall". The sky was dark to the south and the wind was starting to pick up. Just as the band "GreenWheel" ended their set and JMB started setting up, the sky opened and the rain drove away the crowd. We hoped they wouldn't cancel as we sat in the sound tent "Waiting for the Sun". Around 7:00pm the rain stopped! The show was worth the wait! The sound was crisp and thirty minutes into the set there were well over a hundred people in the little field. By the end of the set, the field was packed. I hope a lot of the Everclear fans were impressed and purchased a JMB CD.


JMB @ the Landing June 11th 2005 

Parties in the Park?

We have decided that it is our mission to spread the word about Javier Mendoza Band to those who are not enlightened. For our latest attempt we organized a trip with a couple of friends to the Clayton Parties in the Park. We started out about 2:30, stopped off at PennStation for a quick bite to eat and headed for Clayton.

Just as we were approaching the city limits, the wind started blowing, the clouds opened up, and the rain came down in sheets. When we got to the first street that enters the park, we found a police car displaying a sign reading "Residents Only", so we started looking for another entrance. Every entrance we found also had a police car and sign. After we made several more "U" turns "Q" turns and "P" turns, the rain started to taper off. When we got back around to the original entrance, the police car and sign was gone and we easily found the site of the event.

When we checked with the people remaining at the site, they told us that the event was canceled and would be re-scheduled for the next week. So we headed for BARcelona knowing that Javier was supposed to play an acoustic set there after the park gig. Our thought was that at least the newbees would get to here some live music. Note to self: "Four and a half hours is a really long time to hang out in a restaurant". The good thing is, they have a good selection of beer and servers are very understanding. By the time Javi started, the place was packed!!! Another note to self: "BARcelona is not a good place to hear live music, at least inside". The noise level was so high that you had to yell to talk across the table!

All that being said, we had a great time and agreed that we would all try to go to the re-scheduled event.


Javier @ BARcelona June 8th 2005 
Finally, a peaceful show. I sure hope the "rowdy crowd" doesn't show up.
OH NO!!! THEY’RE ALREADY HERE!!!



Jonez @ BARcelona. 
Small beers for everyone!!!



Barry @ BARcelona. 
This is Barry having the only "small beer" he had all evening.



Lacubrious @ BARcelona 
It's not that we had too much to drink, it's that we had too little.



Kurtis at BARcelona. 
Kurtis, what's that woman whispering in your ear? Is she trying to sell you some acreage?