Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

It was Dillinger Days at Hotel Congress this weekend. In 1933, John Dillinger stayed at Hotel Congress and was captured by the Tucson Police without firing a shot. The hotel staged a re-enactment of the capture, which was then followed by a real shooting by the Tucson Police.

Toole Avenue had been shut down for a classic car show and there were people in the street. Some smokehead stole a car, ran the barricade and struck a police officer. The other police opened fire on the vehicle.

No word on whether an officer shouted "Reach for the moon, or I'll cut you in two..."

Luckily, no one was badly hurt, so Dave Slutes was able to note that the television stories all bore the name of the hotel. Box office, Oberon, think box office.


The real highlight of the evening was Tom Walbank, who is off to participate in the International Blues Challenge. The place was packed. The crowd also included members of a local blues society. Of course, they were mad about the opening acts (heaven forbid, Rock and/or Roll!), but that just meant they drank more.


One of the blues fans that was there accusatorilly asked me what I was doing there. People that know me through politics are always suprised to see me. Why should they be? Do I only exist when I'm ringing doorbells? The guy was in his mid-seventies, I should have asked what he was doing at a club that considers "'80's Night" the height of nostalgia.


The bill was rather ecclectic. The first band was local flamenco act Tesoro, they were followed by Loveblisters, an act from Tempe.

I have been apprehensive about acts from the Valley lately, many are talented but seem to spend more time with choreography than with putting together quality songs. Also, some of the bands have a real attitude problem when they come down here, they apparently feel that they are bigger and better than us colonials. Part of the problem stems from the fact that there are suprisingly few places for a non-cover band to play in Phoenix (especially given its size), and the places that do exist demand slickness. So, you end up with so-called "punk" bands who hit the "OD" buttons on their amps and do covers of "King of Wishful Thinking." I'm not making that up, that was a band I saw in Phoenix last week.

Not so with Loveblisters. They actually cared about the songs that they were playing, and were happy to be playing to so many people that had never heard them before. The audience contained half a dozen friends from Tempe, and the lead singer made a point of telling them to stay for Walbank. Classy. By the way, they have a sound reminiscent of Electric Light Orchestra or XTC.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.