Volume 15 – #9 – September 2012

My life is full of polkas and pets. And that’s about it. They’re all my children but each requires unique care. I’m devoted to both polkas and pets and am really passionate, maybe too passionate, about both. Cats and dogs require a lot of attention, but so do polkas. And, if I do say so myself, I’m somewhat of an authority on cats, dogs and polkas. People contact me regularly concerning what they should do about their pets and/or polkas. Weird, huh? But totally true. Much of my time is spent trying to understand the essence of dogs and cats. The same can be said for my desire to appreciate the specialness of, say, Chicago-born, Polish push-style polka and how it’s different from, say, modern Slovenian-American polka. If one chooses to not pay any attention, they are both the same. Polkas are all alike, right? But, to me, that’s laughable. Certainly, Slovenian-style accordionists, Eddie Rodick or Steve Meisner, would be the first to tell you that what they do bears little resemblance to the Polish approach Al Piatkowski or Billy Belina take. For one thing, the bellows shake, as a rhythm element, dominates push-style accordion, which ultimately makes it more a part of the groove, rather than the focal point of the band. The opposite is true of the instrument’s role in Slovenian-based polka. And to make it even more confusing, this has almost nothing to do with German-style polkas, which is what Brave Combo is currently deeply mired in. It’s Oktoberfest season! Originating in Bavaria, modern German-style polka is a combination of old oompah and disco rock, or rock disco, whichever you prefer. We (Brave Combo) have been trying to incorporate as many known elements of polka as possible into our being and if we’re playing an Oktoberfest, for instance, we want a lot of our music to sound appropriate for the event. After all, we’ve always been a band that just happens to play myriad polkas, but also lots of other things. Unfortunately, if you join Brave Combo, you have to know about 300 songs by memory to even cut the gig. And that number is always growing. Over the years we’ve probably had well over 1000 songs in our repertoire, not all at once, but there have been times when we’ve bragged that we currently could make it through 500-600 songs without too much trouble. This sad reality about Brave Combo has been a rude awakening for more than one new member. But it’s what makes us unique, along with our matching outfits and hairstyles.

Concerning cats and dogs, where do I begin? I could bore you with too many stories that are probably very similar to your experiences, assuming you are as fascinated with your pets as I am mine. You know, stories about how damn expensive a constipated cat can be or how funny it is when one of our dogs runs around the living room in a tight little circle, yipping, because he’s so happy we’re home. I remember when YouTube first appeared how many videos were posted of someone’s cat attacking the computer printer; always hilarious and a well-known source of joy for many. Our dogs and cats do the same things your dogs and cats do, but they do them just for us. Jane, my wife, and I are always explaining to our fascinating brood how costly they are and that we expect entertainment from them in return. We even just bought a glucometer for our diabetic cat, who is also a biter. So we demand a lot of funny stuff from him and he generally delivers. You should have seen him lying on his back inside a too-small box top the other day. Hilarious! He didn’t even know I was looking. I could have taken 100 pictures of him. It cracks me up if a few of my little buddies are in a room with me when I’m listening to something like Serbian brass band music, knowing they hear it too. They’re not exposed to a lot of Beyonce or Foo Fighters or Toby Keith, but they are quite familiar with Angelo DiPippo and Shoukichi Kina. They’re all kinda uppity, to tell you the truth; elitist little snobs, I’m afraid. If someone walks a dog in front of our house and the door is open, a couple of our canine kiddos start barking like crazy, yelping stuff like, “Just keep on moving Bozo, nothing to see hear!” Or they might taunt the walking dogs about being on a leash or something stupid like that. See, nothing too out of the ordinary, but that state of being so ordinary is in itself funny. Cats will be cats and dogs will be dogs. You can quote me on that.

The album we recorded with accordion superstar, Guy Klucevsek, THE MULTIPLE PERSONALITY REUNION TOUR, has been getting some great reviews. Thought you would like to know. The CD is fantastic. You should pick one up.

Have you heard that we’re about to have us a big ol’ USA Votin’ Shindig. We’re gonna decide who we want for President; a too-moderate Democrat or a totally wacked-out Republican. Now, it should surprise no one who will get my vote, but that doesn’t mean I am exactly happy with everything our current President has done, compared to what I thought he would do. But I’m hoping he’s just been distracted by a collapsed economy, an idiot Congress, finding terrorists, ending Bush’s wars etc., and will get down to business in his second term. I think it’s pretty amazing that most Republicans seem to think that Obama is insanely left-wing while most of my friends are pissed off that he’s not even close to being liberal enough. Hoo-boy. If everyone thought exactly as I do this would be so much easier. We would have a National Dog Day, a National Cat Day and a National Polka Day. Actually, we may already have those, but they would be top-story news items, made aware to all the people of Earth. Think about it.

Joke Time:
The Postman: Any of your friends die this month?
Carl: No one, so far, that I know of.
The Postman: Well, there’s always next month.

As I mentioned earlier, the polkas are just flowing out of Brave Combo right now and we would love for you to let them wash over you. You might feel exhilarated or maybe even sorta peaceful, knowing that there is more to life than what you once thought. Please look over our itinerary. We’ll be rocking the 2/4 heavily through October for your listening and dancing pleasure! Until then, Auf Wedersehen!