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Farewell, Matthew S. Farrell

Matthew Farrell. Self-created raconteur, impresario, dandy, sponsor of the arts, cheerleader of creativity, perpetual inspiration. Our dear ice cream server Grace once jokingly referred to him as “the winner, and only contestant, of Charlottesville’s Oscar Wilde Lookalike Contest”, and y’know, she was pretty spot-on. Matt (I was told at various times to call him Matt, Matthew, or “just Farrell”, so to this day, I call him all those things) had his own style that was clearly modeled on his platonic ideal of a perfect gentleman. And this gentleman dressed like a Fitzgerald character, talked like a continental aristocrat who summered in some undefined New England coastal village, and walked like Groucho Marx. He smoked unfiltereds, often two at once, just for kicks, which he would hold when gesticulating excitedly as he greeted dear friends or total strangers. Pretentious? Yeah, a bit. Sincere? Always. Distinctive? Absolutely. At some point, I think I recall him saying someth...

On David (DC, Dave) Berman.

David Berman has left the stage, made his exit, delivered his final observations on the state of existence.   I feel like it’s dumb to be tearing up at the thought of a Berman-less world, so I guess I’m dumb, and I guess I don’t really mind. I can't claim I knew him very well, but I thought of him as a friend. You know, the sort of friendships that form when you're both part of an amorphous social circle of weirdos in a small town at a certain point in time? Like that. Actually, exactly that. Everyone ends up at the same places, and it’s all a sea of get-togethers where everyone ends up in the kitchen, and a tiny club and a sushi bar and a Thai restaurant and a coffee shop and a bunch of patios in the summertime. You see different combinations of the same people, and there’s always beer and whiskey, and every wall is decked out with Steve Keene paintings, no matter which house or shop or cafĂ© you’re sitting in. Now, a couple decades removed, defining specifics is onerous, an...

DJ setlist (partial), bar 151, February 1st, 2010

Here's the rundown of my set at 151 from a couple weeks ago... Or at least the first couple hours thereof. It was a slow night, and I decided to kick things off with a lot of stomping-skanking-honking grooves. Stuck in that vein 'til midnight or so, then transitioned to a funk/soul blend; cueing tracks back and forth between a few compilations, trying to get familiar with some reissues I'd recently acquired (and I stopped keeping a record of what I was playing at that point). So. A set of ska/garage/r&b/soul titles for your perusal: The Wailers- Tall Cool One Baba Brooks & His Band- One Eyed Giant Prince Buster- 7 Wonders Of The World Shane Kai Ray- Jungle Talk Calvin Cool- El Telecote The Savoys- Slappin' Rods & Leaky Oil The Four Sounds- Mama Ubangi Bangi Baby Huey & The Babysitters- Monkey Man The Maytals- Monkey Man The Shardells- Black Crack The Tennors- Ride The Donkey Skip Cole- Do The Whip Prince Buster- Madness Clarence & Calvin- Rooster...