A tip to keep your accordion in shape. January was a very exciting month for accordions!

Here's your care tip for accordions:  Worried about the cost of maintenance? I played an accordion 500 hours in the last year, and you can definitely tell. I play hard too! I try to look at it like what it really is- pretty inexpensive to take care of if you think about it ahead of time. Just put aside a dollar for every hour you play, so you'll have enough when the time comes to take it into the shop!

So much fun stuff has happened in the last month that I am still overwhelmed and excited about it. There was a great basement show at Casa De Chaos with Thee Hobo Gobbelins, The Secretions (who filmed a video about Casa that night which was SO fun and then I sang with them like back in the day when we used to practice down there) and Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children Macnuggits. Oh, Jason Webley played on my birthday at the Fungarden.  And then I hosted a show at Luna's Cafe with Yeti (Jetty Swart) and Shamalamacord which was magical (and Esteban Villa, the legendary co-founder of The Royal Chicano Air Force made a portrait of me which will be my profile pic now), and then went to the city and saw The Hobo Gobbelins at 924 Gilman with The Secretions and Pansy Division at Punk Rock Joel's Birthday party. Also I  got to sing "Freaks Like Us" with them again. Such amazing shows! If you get a chance to see any of these performers, don't miss them!

If you want to see some video from these shows check out my husband's Youtube site www.youtube.com/valletiberti or mine at www.youtube.com/juliethebruce