Unburritably Good News for the Locals

We'd been hoping for this for a long time, but today, the good news was confirmed: Chipotle is coming to Firewheel! The location where I ate tonight had a sign soliciting applications for employment there, so burrito bliss will soon be located almost within walking distance of my house (and yes, considering the size and caloric content of said burritos, walking would not be such a bad idea). One of my friends called me a "retard" tonight for being so excited about the whole Firewheel thing, but mark my words, it's going to transform Garland (both literally and, hopefully, image-wise). The next edition of "Dallas-opoly" won't dare put us in the Baltic or Mediterranean spot like they did last time.

It's always One O'Clock somewhere: I saw the One O'Clock Lab Band tonight at UTD. I missed them in the Syndicate a few weeks ago, but it looks like this will be a good edition of the band. There are eight new members of the band ("we fired the other eight," joked director Neil Slater during the gig), although the trumpets and saxes have only one newcomer apiece. Among the outstanding newcomers were trombonist Sara Jacovino and pianist Josh Hanlon, both of whom moved up from the Two O'Clock (full disclosure: Josh is married to a friend of mine...but all bias aside, he was all over it tonight); new drummer Shawn Pickler (who hails from Pat Metheny's hometown) and lead trumpeter Jason Levi (who was second last year) were also most impressive. The band performed a generous mix of old UNT standards, some gems from the Kenton library, and probably around half of the upcoming "Lab 2005" CD, which should be really enjoyable.

Quite a few of my combo players from the college made it to the concert tonight, but I wish that all of them, as well as all of my high-school jazzers, could have shown up, because the One rarely makes it to this side of Lake Lewisville. (Note to self: Find out the date for this even sooner, and hawk it more.)

Not too much wasting away in Ritaville: Hurricane Rita has come and gone, and, while my heart is out to those who lost homes and businesses on the coast, I bet a lot of people were relieved that it had weakened considerably by the time it made landfall early this morning. The eastern path that generally spared Houston and Galveston also kept even a drop of rain from the Metroplex, so our drought continues.