The name dropper and Vorcza.

Well the little lady and I went out on the town Wednesday. Which in Montpelier doesn't entail much town, for the math nerds its 26.6 km² or 10.3 mi² to be exact. We met up with some of my girlfriend's fellow aspiring lawyer friends for some good old Vermont politics talk.

But, its not your run of the mill talk like: Hey did you see what Senator so and so from Cabot did? What do you think about the new cropping on animals ears and tails legislation? You know like stuff you would hear if you listened to NPR. Its more along the lines of wow did you see H.0697 bill? How unbelievable was that? So as you can imagine if you're not a lawyer or work at the State Legislature you're flat out of the loop. I was able to jump in here and there but much of the time I was out of my league.

Halfway through drinks "The Name Dropper" arrives. You know the guy. He makes sure you are well aware that he went to some prestigious university, his dad owns some billion dollar methane producer in Montana, he played 2 on 2 versus Brad Pitt and George Clooney in basketball last weekend...blah be dee blah blah...and I just bought a $100,000 pair of leather pants, a giraffe, and drive my Ferrari two blocks to my internship and on top of that my underpants are made of diamonds so there!

The name dropping trait is an interesting one. It must act as a type of validation that you're not some smuck. That you are smart and witty and fun to be around. Except in my experience dropping names makes you look silly and conceited.

Well, there was music too. We went to the "World Famous" Charlie O's in Montpelier and saw a Jazz trio called Vorcza. For the noodlers out there the pianist for Vorcza, Ray Paczkowski plays in Trey Anastasio's band (I should mention Trey is the lead of Phish if thats not your scene. The mention of Phish will probably boost my hits as well...so one more Phish for good measure...maybe even New Phish Album! ok sorry).

So, Charlie O's is a pretty small spot and is a total local brown bar. The sound is far from state of the art but its all about the experience going there. Also its not bad given its just down the street from our Apartment. Vorcza has a good sound they are kinda Medeski sounding with a bit more baseline and not quite as loose. Check these local Vermonters out.

Mp3: Vorcza - "Elements"
Mp3: Vorcza - "Three Car Crunch"
Mp3: Vorcza - "Friendly Galaxy"

Buy their albums from the band's website and don't be that guy.