The Remnants of Bella

I may not be eating healthy, but I'm getting my exercise in. Yesterday, I totaled 10,856  steps over 2.8 miles between the hotel, the Bijou Theater, The Point, the Old City PAC, back to the hotel, and then the long walk to the Civic Auditorium and back again.

This morning, I couldn't decide how to start my day. Did I want to start with the long walk up to the Mill & Mine for a standing-only show by Secret Chiefs 3, or go literally next door to a seated show by Christian McBride and Brad Mehldau? I couldn't decide and figured I'd just hit the street and see which direction my feet would take me. I left my hotel room and called the elevator, and when the doors opened, there was one person already in the elevator, riding down to the lobby - Mr. Christian McBride. If that's not an omen, I don't know what is - maybe not exactly a sign from God, but maybe from an even higher authority.

After McBride and Mehldau, I saw the band Sexmob uptown at The Standard. After that was a great show at the Old City PAC by the poet and spoken word performer Aja Monet, with a surprise band that included pianist Vijay Iyer and drummer Nate Smith. 

I saw portions of several shows after that including the end of performer Ka Baird's set, the beginning of the set by the band Make a Move, and the middle part of Tomas Fujiwara's Seven Poets Trio.  I finally settled down, though, and saw the entirely of the set by Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog. I saw the first half of the late-night (11:30 pm) set at The Standard by the Messthetics featuring saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, but my feet were killing me. I couldn't stand around watching a band, no matter how good, much longer.  I called it a night and took the long walk back to my hotel.

One more day of Big Ears left.