I stumbled upon the down-to-earth quality of the Nebraska native’s acoustic music via his “Summertime Noisetrade Sampler” about a year ago. His sound is warm. Friendly. The kind I imagine would play out of a transistor radio as I lay on the grass under a Poplar tree on an 82-degree afternoon.

I’ve often craved to see him play a set live. But as he currently doesn’t tour much outside of Europe (he currently lives in Spain), I’ve settled for listening to his recordings. Thankfully, the Universe picked up on my wish and the web-savvy team behind Rouse has found a way to bridge the geographical gap.

Rouse has partnered with Stageit.com to put on his first online show on Sunday, May 20. According to Rouse’s website, it is hoped that the show, which will air from the Valencia apartment of band member Cayo Bellveser, will be the first of a series of shows Rouse is calling “Late Night Conversations.”

The online performance will start at 10:00 p.m. Valencia time, which is 1:00 p.m. San Diego time. To see what this means for the start time in your neck of the States, click here.

You’ll have to buy a ticket to catch the show. If you’re new to Stageit.com like I am, this means that you’ll first need to sign up for an account with Stageit.com, buy some Stageit Notes, and then pay what you can/want for access to Rouse’s show. (”Notes” are Stageit’s form of currency; $1 equals 10 Notes.) Buy enough Stageit Notes and you can also tip Rouse during the performance which is said to include a few new songs, some Rouse oldies but goodies, and live requests.

For more info on the show, including how to get your hands on a handwritten lyric sheet of one of Rouse’s new songs, check out the Stageit.com page for the event.

To quote my favorite song off of Rouse’s latest album, Josh Rouse and The Long Vacations, “Oh, look what the sun did. It made the sky turn blue.”

Two of the chefs participating are Craig Jimenez of Craft & Commerce in Little Italy and Matt Gordon of Urban Solace in North Park and Solace & the Moonlight Lounge in Encinitas.

“You’re able to run away on this adventure to find sunken treasure,” says Jimenez of Todd Strasser’s Beyond the Reef, the book he’s chosen to interpret for the event.

In homage to the Key West setting of Strasser’s tale, Jimenez will prepare Conch Fritteratti with Lime Mustard: a tender sea snail breaded in panko crumbs, fried, and served with lime mustard and a salad of seaweed and charred peppers.

“I read Beyond the Reef for English class when I was in middle school,” says the 30-something Jimenez. “We had to write a certain amount of book reports per month and this one stuck with me.”

Since Craft & Commerce is known as much for incorporating books and book quotes into its decor as much as for its food and cocktails, it’s fitting that the Little Italy restaurant would also contribute something from the bar. Bartenders Eric Johnson and Christian Siglin will pair the Conch Fritteratti with a cocktail they’re calling the Bahama Brahma: a mix of Jamaican rum, coffee liqueur, coconut syrup, fresh pineapple and fresh lemon juice served over crushed ice.

Chef Matt Gordon of Urban Solace turned to Ernest Hemingway’s Paris memoirs, A Moveable Feast, for enlightenment.

“Having grown up in the Southwest where everything is so new, I am always moved by the sense of history of cities like Paris,” Gordon shares. For the event, he will serve miniature Croque-Monsieur with a creamy brown butter Mornay sauce. “It’s just something I love to eat and such a defining Parisian dish.”

It’s also a dish the Solace & Moonlight Lounge owner says he would make for Hemingway if he was alive today, even though, as Gordon puts it, “[Hemingway] talks about a bit ‘finer’ eating in the book.”

Complementing the eats with refreshments are Stone Brewing Co., Honest Tea, Solar Rain, 12 Signs Wine, and SOL Markets. Also, Hillcrest favorite Bread & Cie Bakery and Cafe will put together gift bags inspired by Dr. Seuss’ Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

Admission to the event, which takes place from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., is $60 and benefits The San Diego Council of Literacy’s efforts to provide free literacy assistance to adults, families and children in San Diego County. Click here to purchase your tickets. (NOTE: Payment is via PayPal. If you don’t have a PayPal account, don’t worry; simply pay as a guest.)

(Image from the website of The San Diego Council on Literacy.)

Almost immediately, my mind wandered back to an afternoon more than 10 years ago when I found my beaten down hardcover copy of Pierre: A Cautionary Tale at my parent’s home. In contrast to the brownish paperback version now sold, my hard copy of Sendak’s Pierre was light blue and not unlike this photo I found on the blog “Kid Lit Storytime.”

The cover had a texture to it so that running fingernails across it would emit a sound similar to running fingernails across a taut section of woven fabric. A wobbly “Christine” was scribbled on the inside cover. Words and letters were circled indiscriminately on various pages throughout the book, cluing me in to the fact that I read and re-read the book during a time in my childhood when my mom was studying for a nursing exam (I was mimicking my mom’s practice of underlining and highlighting sections of the books she studied).

The caution of Sendak’s Pierre lies in the stomach of a lion. Pierre is a boy who answers all questions with an emphatic “I don’t care!” He doesn’t care if he goes hungry. He doesn’t care if his parents leave him alone at home. His lack of regard is so great that he tells a lion that he doesn’t care if it eats him. So, the lion does. The lion eventually gets sick of Pierre in his stomach and must be taken to a doctor to have Pierre extracted. Upon rejoining the world, Pierre changes his tune to “I CARE!”

In looking up interviews of Mr. Sendak, I’ve realized that the reason why Pierre came to mind today and why it has always stuck with me is because it taught me to care about living and what I do in life.

“My big concern is me and what do I do now until the time of my death,” said Mr. Sendak in a 2004 interview with Bill Moyers for “Now on PBS.” “That is valid. That is useful. That is beautiful. That is creative.”

In the interview, Sendak reveals that he is more concerned about living than the fact that his books will undoubtedly leave a legacy. For Mr. Sendak, the idea that his books will live on when he dies is “lovely” and “gratifying.” But when Moyers expands the idea, claiming that the books ensure that Sendak himself will never die, Sendak responds frankly: “I have news for you. I’m gonna croak. I am gonna croak.”

“I want to see me to the end working, living for myself,” Sendak said. “[W]hat is the point of it all? Not leaving legacies. But being ripe. Being ripe.”

The Wikipedia entry on Mr. Sendak has already been updated to reflect the date of his death. And though his spirit thrives in his stories, I thank Mr. Sendak for teaching me that life is about savoring the present, that life isn’t so much about what we leave behind but caring about what we can do today.

I care!

(Photo from Kid Lit Storytime.)

Why I dig it: Because it has inspired me to get creative with my own lunch. Now, on the days I go into an office to work, I take a half hour in the morning to pack myself a healthy lunch that I’m excited to eat. And the fact that the author uses a variety of bento boxes and other handy-dandy containers is just the cherry on top for my inner (and outer) organization freak.

Fun facts:

• The working dad in question is AP Food Editor J.M. Hirsch.
• Hirsch has made up three Star Wars-themed sandwiches—the Obi Wan-wich, the Yub Yub, and the Jawa-wich. Don’t panic: there won’t be a Jar Jar anything in the future.
• The stainless steel bento boxes used are of the Lunchbots line. For info on the other lunch box gear used, click here.

Saturday, April 21: Happy Record Store Day!

• 10:00 a.m. Celebrate Record Store Day at M-Theory! Exclusive releases, including Common’s latest, a Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. EP featuring two new songs, and a Regina Spektor 45 featuring two unreleased tracks she recorded in Russian are just a few of the wiles M-Theory is pulling out to lure you to their event. There will also be a sidewalk sale featuring 50 cent LPs and $1.00 CDs, free swag and skateboards from Sector 9, free pizza from Lefty’s Chicago Pizzaria, and a live and free 5:00 p.m. performance by The Donkeys.
• 12:00 p.m. Get full in Hillcrest. The 11th annual Taste of Hillcrest takes place until 4:00 p.m. Approach the event with a strategy and you’ll get a quality sample of the over 50 restaurants participating this year. Thankfully, though the event is another year older, the ticket price is the same as it was in 2010: $30 in advance, $35 day of. To buy tickets online and to get a PDF of this year’s event map, visit Fabulous Hillcrest’s event webpage. For an idea of how the tickets for this event work, check out my post on last year’s Taste.
• 4:50 p.m. Watch tUnE-yArDs perform live at Coachella from the comfort of your couch. I had the honor of seeing Merrill Garbus, aka tUnE-yArDs, perform live at San Diego’s House of Blues this past Wednesday. Her creativity humbles me. If you’ve never seen her perform live, I’d hate for you to miss the opportunity. Seize your chance by tuning in on Channel 2 of Coachella’s live webcast. Garbus will amaze you with her ability to layer sounds and beats on the spot. She will take you in with the sweet ferocity of her voice. She will dumbfound you with the way she sings back-up for herself. LIVE. I dare you not to be struck in awe.*

Sunday, April 22: Happy Earth Day!

• 12:00 p.m. Celebrate Spring at the Coronado Flower Show. Though Spring likes to swell up my sinuses the way a brown noser pumps up a manager’s ego, I’ll willingly suppress its effect with a dose of Chlor-Trimetron and spend the day under the tents of the Coronado Flower Show, the largest tented flower show in the nation. General admission is only $5; children under 12 are free.
• 3:00 p.m. An Adams Avenue music festival by any other name DOES smell as sweet. Previously known as the Adams Avenue Roots Festival, the FREE event now known as Adams Avenue Unplugged takes place until 7:00 p.m. on this final day of the weekend. Up to 170 live musical performances ranging from folk, traditional roots music, Appalachian folk songs, bluegrass, Americana, cowboy, Cajun, and rockabilly are scheduled to appear at various venues on the two-mile stretch of Adams between Texas Street in Normal Heights and Kensington. For a list of who’s performing and where they’ll be performing, check out the Adams Avenue Unplugged website.

(Photo caption, from left to right: Record Store Day logo from RecordStoreDay.com; Taste of Hillcrest logo from FabulousHillcrest.com; press photo of Merrill Garbus photographed by Anna Campbell for 4AD; photo of the Coronado Flower Show entrance from Beach Local’s Flickr photostream; Adams Avenue Unplugged poster from NormalHeights.org.)

*CORRECTION: Coachella Weekend 2 will NOT be live streamed per a Pitchfork article posted on April 13. You can, however, see video of tUnE-yArDs performing “Bizness” and “Powa” on Coachella’s YouTube channel. Apologies for the misinformation!

And then there is Merrill Garbus, aka tUnE-yArDs. Her music is inescapable. For a taste, check out “Bizness,” “Gangsta,” and “My Country” from her latest album, w h o k i l l.

I listen and become bewitched by her voice. It soars between rip-your-shirt-off fury and leotard-and-leggings lyricism, never riding on top of the orchestration but weaving and playing among the other instruments. At times her songs evoke thoughts of a drum circle, of walking along a cobblestone street lost in thought until happening on a festival in a plaza, of listening to old records in a basement, of a contemporary dance show, of a downward spiral, of a break in the clouds, of a quiet day journaling on a patio. Her beats charm me into movement. I jump, thump, rock, sway. I’m all over the place and I don’t care. I am awake.

No doubt, then, that I’m excited that she is performing at San Diego’s House of Blues this Wednesday, April 18. Tickets for the show, which includes sets by fellow 4AD artist St. Vincent and Keep Shelly in Athens, run $28.50 each after service charge.

Afterwards, she heads back out to Indio for Weekend 2 of Coachella before hitting San Francisco and Oakland. For a full list of her upcoming performances, check out her artist page on 4AD.

She’s so friggin’ glorious. I’m counting the hours.

(Press photo of Merrill Garbus photographed by Anna Campbell for 4AD.)

The serving size of the sandwich was more than generous for my stomach and my hand. There were times when I resorted to fork-and-bread-knifing it to save myself the trouble of wielding it in for a bite. I won’t lie: it was also to save the underside of my fingernails from pesto and tomato invasion. I’m dainty like that.

Having tried and liked something off of the “Between the Slices” section of Village 631’s breakfast menu, I’m ready to venture. There are three other sections of first-of-the-day eats: “House Favorites” which includes a house-cured gravlax dish, “Scrambles,” “Quiche of the Day,” and “Good For You!” options featuring house made granola and (in one case) acai.

Then there’s their pastries. They sit in a glass dome above the refrigerated grab-and-go section of the front bar. It’s a regular red light district of breakfast goodies: almond croissants puffed to the size of mini footballs and dusted with powdered sugar, chocolate croissants striped in more chocolate. I’d list more but like a little girl who accidentally found her older brother’s stash of dirty magazines, I looked away before it all sunk in.

I’ve read that their coffee and espresso drinks are good and made from 100% organic beans. I’ve also seen photos that show their dine-in versions carry Rosetta finishes. Not one to drink coffee, I can’t offer a personal take. But I do have my eye on their Chai Latte. And I’ll try a sip of their Iced Toddy if you offer it to me.

They also carry bottles of Bundaberg Blood Orange soda! True, it’s not a breakfast drink. Unless you think of it as fizzy orange juice, which I do.

The forecast for this weekend in San Diego currently shows sunshine on Sunday. Might I recommend you give breakfast at Village 631 a shot?

I sat at my favorite table in the cafe–the one that has a view of the University & 4th bus stop–and I smiled to myself. I smiled the way I did two years ago when I sat at the bar in La Puerta to enjoy a frosty mug of a mojito cocktail known as the Mr. Mojo Risin’. Back then, I basked in the glow of my last day at a life-draining job. Today, over a bowl of New England clam chowder and a generous slice of apple rhubarb raspberry tart, I reveled at where the gumption to leave that job has taken me.

In 2011, I debuted in print with an article on Jane Lui in San Diego Magazine. Soon after, I published work in Pacific San Diego Magazine. And, I’ve been contributing to both magazines ever since, appearing in eight San Diego Magazine issues and four Pacific San Diego Magazine issues to date.

Dig This Jive has also continued to grow even though, I admit, my posting frequency has declined in the past months. Still, over this past year, the blog has averaged twice the number of daily, weekly, and monthly hits it averaged in 2010-2011, with notable spikes for my posts on the opening of Little Italy’s Underbelly and last fall’s Food Truck gatherings at The Epicentre in Mira Mesa. I’m also very humbled to find Dig This Jive referenced by Regal Beagle in Mission Hills, comedians Billy and Adam (of the stitch-in-side hip-hop duo, Snakes, and the sketch group known as Harvard Sailing Team), letterpress amazingness 9spotmonk, and the popular San Diego blog, mmm-yoso.

Finally, I’ve been able to cross “work for a non-profit” off of my bucket list thanks to 2011. Last June, I was invited to join Comic-Con International’s Programming Department as a recurring temporary employee. Though I started off a bit intimidated, I’ve nestled in. It just so happens that the anal-retentive tendencies that manifested when I was a kid–I loved organizing my Halloween candy by types then brands–has found a new home, one that’s occupied by great people who are flexible with my flexible work schedule and have no qualms over my affection for Microsoft Excel. I’ve got one Comic-Con badge on my metaphoric Girl Scout-ish sash and, this week, I’ll add my first WonderCon. And, I’m not impractical: I appreciate the extra income I get from my work with the organization. It makes DTJ ideas, like the one I have to conquer Convoy Street’s eats, more accessible. “Accessible” as in “I’m able to afford it again.”

Thank you to all of you who take the time to read these posts, to those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook, and to those who take the time to read my articles in San Diego Magazine and Pacific San Diego Magazine. You’re the reason why I feel like my writing will always have a place in this world.

Now, to 2012…

By the way: I didn’t actually finish the apple rhubarb raspberry tart. I only took a bite. Or two. I brought the rest home to share with my live-in tech support and, yes, my number one fan. This blog literally wouldn’t exist without him.

Saturday, February 4, 2012:

• 2:00 p.m. Take in orchestral music played by teens and not-yet-teens. The kids that make up the San Diego Youth Symphony (and any youth symphony) are inspiring not only for their talent but for the hard work they put towards obtaining, maintaining, and improving that talent. This Showcase Concert takes place at Copley Symphony Hall in Downtown. Tickets run the range of $10-$35. To get your tickets, call The Copley Box Office at 619-235-0804. If you can’t make this performance, then consider the 7:00 p.m. Ovation Concert at Copley (tickets run the same range for the later show).
• 8:00 p.m. Celebrate the lives of six courageous women. North Park’s Art Produce Gallery collaborates with Eveoke Dance Theatre in its latest exhibit, Reflections. The combination visual and dance show is a portrait of six women you might not have already ever heard of but will be glad that you finally did. General admission tickets are $24; for seniors and students, $18.

Sunday, February 5, 2012:

• 12:00 p.m. Check out a San Diego Museum at half-off admission! February is Museum Month in San Diego. In terms of your wallet, that means if you pick up a FREE Museum Month Pass from any Macy’s in San Diego, you can use it to enjoy half-off admission at participating San Diego museums until February 29. (As with last year, I’d recommend hitting a Macy’s customer service center or Visitor’s center.) If you don’t know which museums to hit, the San Diego Museum Council lends their two cents to help you make an informed decision. For my part, I’d recommend checking out the San Diego’s Craft Revolution exhibit at the Mingei in Balboa Park, the Phenomenal: California Light, Space, and Surface exhibit at MCASD Downtown, the TRASH exhibit at the New Children’s Museum in Downtown, and the Natural History Museum’s exhibit of Titanic artifacts (which opens on February 10).
• 3:30 p.m. Watch Madonna jump the shark. Super Bowl XLVI. For those of us who don’t remember our Roman numeral lessons of yore, that’s “46.” This repeat of 2007’s match-up takes place in Indianapolis. Elder Manning hosts younger brother and Tom Brady. Yada, yada, yada. I’m more curious about halftime. Hip-Hop choreo icon Tabitha D’umo of Nappytabs headed up the choreography for the performance. And, you read right: Madonna has signed on as the main act of a triple-M music offense (pun unintended) that also stars Minaj (as in Nicki Minaj) and M.I.A. (I’ve honestly lost track of her since “Paper Planes,” which makes her stage name ironically relevant). I’m sure jokes abound that speculate a Madonna wardrobe malfunction, one that would trump Janet Jackson’s 2004 gaffaw; just not here. Too easy.

(Photo caption, from left-to-right: Photo of young musicians from the San Diego Youth Symphony’s website; flyer image from Art Produce Gallery’s website; image from Macy’s Museum Month website; photo of Madonna from the NFL’s Super Bowl web page.)

This past November, she and Dean Fleischer-Camp posted a follow-up to the original “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” on YouTube. In part deux, we learn the fate of Marcel’s sister, Marissa. We learn the nickname Marcel wouldn’t mind being called, though he understands that making up his own nickname is disingenuous. We learn what his pen name would be if he ever wrote a book. We find out what happens when he finally remedies his regret of not having a dog. And, in the end, he reminds us about the simple joy of smiling.

As if that weren’t enough, this second video coincided with Penguin’s publication of Marcel’s story in the book, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me.

What I appreciate most about the publication of the book is that its website resolves, once and for all, the question of whether Marcel is a he or a she.

Ah, there’s nothing like a little validation to help get through the middle of the week.