Weekend update July 26th

Went to see Abe and Christine LaMarca and Tex Richardson Friday night at Panevino. Were you restricted to just one adjective, it'd be "elegant."

So. I'm sittin' there thinkin' "just add a kit, bass, and guitarist and you got a totally badass group that should be at Bellagio or someplace like it." Not kidding.

Below, our bro' Ron Crews is back in town. He and Debbie came to hang -- and dance a bit.

Crewster is one Bad Boy percussionist and vocalist, btw. Glad to have him and Deb back around.

OK, back home, dose the cat (his twice-a-day insulin shot), watch a bit of le Tour on Tivo, then back out to The Bootlegger for the Hot Club of Las Vegas late night hang.

Above, Adrianna Thurber throwin' it down on violin. Below, Nathalie Gauvin from Le Reve sittin' in for Carol.

Dave Richardson and Dr. Lenny both sat in. Awesome. Great crowd, too. Place was about full, and peeps were seriously diggin' the music. Very nice to see.
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UPDATE ON MY BRO' KURT

Regular blog readers might recall that a year ago I went up to the Seattle area, along with Tim Scott, to participate in a fundraising gig for our long-time friend Kurt Kolstad. Cat is one of the baddest drummers I ever heard, and has been battling acute, advanced lymphoma since 2005. Listen to him get after it, old live cut, 4 pc band (guitar, keys w/left-hand Rhodes bass, sax, and Kurt on tubs).

Scary player. He's been my great friend since 1974, when we played in a Seattle band together (lucky me). Below, Kurt and I at his house last July, after JoeyT and I just showed up outa the blue. Yeah, the chemo tan look. Swell. The chemo and radiation-induced neuropathy that's kept him mostly off his feet and off his kit is equally frustrating for him.

Well, we just got word that, notwithstanding a clean update diagnosis late last year, his cancer has returned yet again. Shit.

We been burnin' up the emails and phone calls ever since getting the news, with the cats up there planning another fundraiser for the end of August. The Kolstads long ago burned through their insurance coverage ceilings, and are now in that infuriating medical destitution circumstance (which complicates our legally helping them) from which we are all (us private sector peons, anyway) but one serious accident or injury away whether we realize it or not.

The Other BobbyG -- my totally boring, pedantic twin -- studies and writes at length about all that here. Lately I've been real distracted as I follow the current legislative drafts (e.g., an 852 page Senate bill and a 1,108 page House bill) and all the political maneuvering surrounding them.
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