Wow

We just did 3 gigs, 3 days in a row Saturday through Monday.

Saturday was our monthly Burlesque n Brass at Cafe Van Kleef with Hot Pink Feathers. We played till after 1am, then had to be ready to play the next day at noon in the Mission. We strolled from 22nd near Mission to 19th and Dolores where the Hornucopia Brass Festival Party was just getting started. There were some amazing bites and then the Brass Liberation Orchestra showed up to more cheers. They played a couple... we played a couple... and then Blue Bone Express led us all through the Second Line while the air became dank with the harmonic frequencies of a couple dozen musicians. It was awesome. Thanks to Evan Stuart of Brass Menagerie for covering our regular sousaphonist Brandon for both weekend gigs.

After the exhausting weekend, we still had more work to do. On Monday night, we showed up at Weinstein Gallery kitty corner from Union Square at Geary and Powell. They were throwing a fundraising auction for the SF Playgroup Theater and we were the surprise finale. Apparently Mayor Newsom showed up for a spell and about $100,000 was raised for the theater. We had an absolute blast and sold a handful of CDs.

And now the band has a few days off. But we are all individually hard at work and will be ready to get a load off at Cafe Du Nord this coming Saturday. This will be the ninth of ten nights of the Hornucopia Festival, as we open things up for Polkacide and Rube Waddell. You can see the flyers on our homepage over at http://blueboneexpress.com

Thanks for reading, and please know that we love you!

Jara

Blue Bone Express Plays Café Van Kleef, First Saturday of May

Photo by Chronicle's Mark Costantini *Jason, Kevin, Jara, & Keri from Hot Pink Feathers

We had a blast last Friday, with Hot Pink Feathers, kicking off Bay Area National Dance Week with a parade at Union Square. You can read all about it over at The Oakland Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle. There's also video at both sites.

And once again you can find both groups over at Café Van Kleef, this coming First Saturday of May. Here's the scoop:

So Mardi Gras is once again upon us, and your favorite New Orleans-style party band will once again celebrate at Café Van Kleef. Our usual first Saturday show with Hot Pink Feathers will fall on the Saturday before Mardi Gras this year. That's February 2nd, so you know where to be that night!We're being featured in the Chronicle next week, so be sure to check out the 96hour section in Thursday's paper!Also, if you miss Saturdays show, and even if you don't miss it, you can come see us on actual Fat Tuesday 2-05 at Norm's Place in Danville. It will be a great time for sure!!!

Download Poster

The 2nd Annual Artsfest 2007 Arts Expo is a free family-friendly Celebration of the Arts on Saturday, May 19th in Civic Center Plaza that features dazzling multi-cultural music, dance, spoken word and circus performances and an array of interactive art attractions and demonstrations for all ages. This outdoor event takes place from 11:00 am ? 6:00 pm in front of San Francisco City Hall (Polk Street at McAllister) complete with visual art exhibition, fashion/designer bizarre, sponsor and arts groups tables, food, beer/wine garden that all showcase the culturally vibrant region of the Bay Area.

WHO:
Artsfest presents the Artsfest 2007 Arts Expo, a free, outdoor, family-friendly, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary Celebration of the Arts!

WHAT:
Music, dance, theater, circus, spoken word performers, over 25 visual artists, a fashion bizarre, interactive art installations, a collaborative art project for MySpace.com, walk-around performers, and a special youth arts area for families.

Come join this celebration of the Bay Area arts community with entertainment, performances and visual art, including:
Circus Metropolus Marching Band (klown-fi parade) www.circusmetropolus.com
Create Peace Project (collaborative painting) www.createpeaceproject.org
Drew Dellinger (spoken word) www.drewdellinger.com
DJ SpinCycle (world grooves) www.spincycle.org
Hot Pink Feathers &  Blue Bone Express (world cabaret burlesque) www.hotpinkfeathers.com
Lutsinga Musical Ensemble (south afrikan funk and groove) www.lutsinga.com
Miss Rosie Love (hoop dance) www.hooliehoop.com
Octopus 8 (oceanic volcanic rock from the underworld)
Pacific Art Collective (collaborative painting) www.pacificartcollective.com
RubberSideDown (alternative rock) www.rsd-music.com
Youth Speaks (spoken word) www.youthspeaks.org
Wailing Junkette (afro-brazilian jazz) www.michapatrimusic.com

WHEN:
Saturday, May 19, 2007 from 11am ? 6pm

WHERE:
Civic Center Plaza in front of San Francisco City Hall (Polk Street at McAllister).

COST:
Free

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Sponsors include Merrill Lynch, MySpace.com, California Closets, The Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Marin Magazine, BART, ComMUNIty, KGO-TV, SF Station.com, KTRB-AM, and In-Ticketing.

Thanks to local rag "The Music Scene" out of Alameda for showing up and publishing this fine spread.

*Please note that not all pics are from my birthday party which was on Fat Tuesday Feb. 20, 2007, as the Hot Pink Feathers were not performing with BBX on that night.

Check it out!!!  We got an awesome review from Eros EZine Guide to Erotica:

http://www.eros-zine.com/articles/2007-04-17/hotpinkfeathers0417/



All photographs courtesy of The Hot Pink Feathers.

When you live in downtown Oakland, and you're a fan of the arts -- especially the arts of the esoteric, historic, gutsy, raunchy, edgy, sexy, even a little bit naughty variety -- you get damned used to two things: BART and the Bay Bridge. Hey, it's really not much of a drive to San Francisco, and the train gets you there in record time -- but at two in the morning with a snootful of bourbon and a candy-colored smear across your French collar, no commute is a good commute, and any distance between you and the Alka Seltzer is too far.


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Photo by Ed Barnas

Photo by Dizzy Swank

More importantly, downtown Oakland is the perfect setting for a late-night latter-day film-noir masterpiece -- when you wander down alleys in the streetlight shadows of Prohibition-era edifices and the blasted shells of fancy old theatres rimmed by cyclone fences under billboards tagged FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE, with frequent clouds of cannabis smoke drifting past you between fresh breezes off the bay, it puts you in the perfect mood to enjoy a little midnight New Orleans style jazz and a crew of the prettiest dancing girls Tom Waits could ever want to moon over.



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Photo by Don Spiro

I'm referring, of course, to the monthly Saturday-night gig featuring the Hot Pink Feathers, San Francisco's own samba-burlesque troupe, and Blue Bone Express, an eccentric little combo mixing NOLA-style Dixieland with bop, blues and bachelor-pad improvisation.


This cooled-off cauldron of retro-smooth goes down at Cafe Van Kleef, a funky little joint in the heart of downtown Oakland that provides a sweet taste of Bohemia where it's most needed. The walls are decorated with an explosion of fin-de-siècle freakout, German Imperial regalia, kitschy collusion and mid-'60s bachelor-pad etchings, adding up to a lovable blend of boho elegance and oddball chic. The drinks are great, too.


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Photo by Doug McKechnie

The flyer says 9pm, but down here things run on Jazz Time, so don't expect a tuba note 'til the hour hits the double digits. Still, you'll want to get there early, because this outfit draws 'em in from all over, and if you show up at ten you'll have a hell of a time finding a decent seat in this close-packed club. Besides, who's watching the clock, with Sierra Nevada on tap and Van Kleef's crunchy popcorn available at the bar?



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Photo by Dizzy Swank

Blue Bone Express warms you up with a set of their Southern gumbo, played on trombone, tuba, keyboard, bari sax and drums. The group's as hot to play as you are to listen -- one song and you'll know these people love to play jazz as much as anyone's ever loved anything. Once the Express has got you good and liquored up on Louis Armstrong and Charles Sheffield, the voodoo starts in earnest when the Hot Pink Feathers take the stage -- or, more accurately, wriggle and watusi themselves onto the cafe floor, where the tightly-packed Temescal types clear a path for perdition. The polo-shirted patrons clutch their Campari and sodas protectively, as hips and headdresses twirl in a frenzied fandango of brisk bumps and gutsy grinds.



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Photo by Doug McKechnie

The Feathers, to oversimplify, are a brightly-costumed ensemble of burlesque dancers whose spirited samba is as funny and fun as it is outrageously sexy. With a playful mix of sultry moves and flirty sight gags, the Feathers, led by the captivating Kellita G, mingle feisty Latin moves with more traditional burlesque bumps. If you've never had the pleasure of seeing burlesque dancing performed to live jazz, then this is the place to start. It's like slugging down a pint of Uncle Peppy's moonshine after ten years of Nestea. It's sexy, spunky, sassy retro fun with all the heart and soul of Rio de Janeiro and the French Quarter, right there in downtown Oaktown.

If you're looking for the perfect date, the perfect diversion, or just a chance to see an eminently sexy group of gifted hoofers grinding to hot jazz played by true enthusiasts, order a whiskey sour and settle into your seat for one of the best evenings the Bay Area has to offer.



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Hot Pink Feathers & Blue Bone Express Quick Info:
when	Saturday, May 5 and Saturday, June 2, 2007
where	Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave @ 17th Street, Oakland
time	9pm
cost	$8
contact	www.hotpinkfeathers.com, www.blueboneexpress.com

The Hot Pink Feathers - Article by Thomas S. Roche

I don't know how we got so swamped so fast. But here we are with gigs every single weekend for what seems like forever. (well we will have a break next weekend, finally)

Looks like we'll have to raise our rates to weed out some of these practically pay-to-play situations. Or subsidize them with some stable dates at a restaurant somewhere.



    Another Day At the Jobsite.

So we tried it and had a whole lot of fun... so it's the beginning of a regular type of practice for the band. Look out for us wherever and whenever.

We started at the bandshell in Lakeside Park in Oakland, CA, the focal point of the band.






Then we continued down to the shore of Beautiful Lake Merritt.




We rested a bit as we jammed outside of Children's Fairyland.




We brought smiles to many people's faces.







It was a most satisfying, culturally enriching experience. We'll let you know as we do it some more.
And special thanks to Doug Port for playing with us for the first time on Bass Drum!

I'll leave you with a little bit of video for some low-res fun.


Get this video and more at MySpace.com

So we strolled the SF Carnaval Parade route for the 2nd year in a row just yesterday. After waiting around for over three hours, we finally got moving and put on a great performance, seeming to win over most of the crowd. Of course, we had the Hot Pink Feathers with us again. They were numbered at 11 this year and were pretty dazzling as pink and black polka-dotted and striped gypsies. We were dressed as blue pirates.

Here are some pics. Enjoy.



Waiting at the staging area with Quest our "Prince" of the parade.







More waiting. The Paparazzi was there and snapped a bunch of shots of this very scene.







Of all the times for a bass drum head to break!!! At least it happened before we started. And we just happened to have CLEAR! duct tape at hand.







The Feathers practicing one of their many skirt transformations.







The front line of our group!







And then the lovely Hot Pink Feathers







Then the horns, then the drums.







And our throng of Revelers and Helpers!







And finally our "float".






*All photos by Giovanna Queeto