As the tryptophan-induced Thanksgiving haze wears off, I thought I’d share a couple examples of accordion-inspired architecture that I’d run across recently. The first comes from Buenos Aires, where the city has just dedicated a new monument to tango music in the shape of a giant steel bandoneon. The tango has long been an integral part of Argentinian culture and this monument joins statues and plaques in Buenos Aires honoring tango legends like Carlos Gardel, Osvaldo Pugliese and Astor Piazzolla.

The second isn’t reality (yet), but is a design by London architect Ken Shuttleworth for a 10-story accordion-shaped building that will border Christopher Wren’s Monument to The Great Fire Of London. The building’s rooftop garden will double as a sundial, using the shadow from Wren’s Monument to indicate the time.

My favorite piece of accordion architecture, though, is still the old San Francisco accordion school — Theodore School of Music on Union Street — with its entire second floor shaped like an accordion.

Jack-o-Lantern, originally uploaded by RJL20

There’s still an hour of Halloween left, which is plenty of time to share this photo of a beautifully spooky jack-o-lantern based on a Jason Webley t-shirt design. Jason has a new album out, The Cost of Living, which is his first solo album in three years. He’s backed by his excellent touring band and the result is more rock ‘n’ roll than his previous stuff. If you missed it, be sure to check out our recent interview with Jason, conducted before the Monsters of Accordion tour.

Some of you already know that Anna and I are huge Red Sox fans; we even flew out to Boston for the World Series parade when the Sox won in 2004. We didn’t make the trip this year, but I almost wish we had after seeing these photos of Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon dancing a jig with Boston’s own accordion-toting Dropkick Murphys during today’s celebration. The Dropkick Murphys have become the unofficial house band of the Red Sox lately, re-recording the 100-year-old bleacher anthem “Tessie” in 2004 and performing on the field before Game 7 of the ALCS two weeks ago.

This year’s International Accordion Festival in San Antonio has come and gone, but thanks to the magic of the interweb, we can live vicariously through reports and photos from folks who were actually there. Some highlights:

• On his blog, Joe Nick Patoski has an excellent writeup on the festival, along with photos of the opening night concert that featured Santiago Jimenez, Jr. and Chango Spasiuk.
• The festival’s hometown paper, the San Antonio Express-News, has a recap of the first two days. Their Night Lights Now blog includes a bunch of photos and hands out festival awards that include “Most radically altered accordion” and “Best dressed band.”
• Those Darn Accordions have a couple posts about the festival on their blog, including some photos of their workshop, “Calling All Accordion Grrrrls!”
• Mister Anchovy has a ton of great photos from his trip to the festival, including some from a side-trip to Louisiana.
• Kay Douglas has some fantastic photos of the festival, with descriptions of many of the bands.

Were you there, too? Drop us a line if you have any photos or videos of the festival and we’ll add the links here.

Monsters of Accordion photos

It isn’t every day you get to see five of North America’s hottest singer/songwriter/accordionists in one place, but we were lucky enough to do so last night at 12 Galaxies in San Francisco as the Monsters of Accordion tour rolled into town. The crowd was incredible — my amateur guesstimating skills say around 300 people — including a handful of Let’s Polka readers who came up and introduced themselves throughout the night (thanks for coming!).

The show kicked off with Geoff Berner whose “Canadian klezmer drinking songs” had the crowd singing along from the start. In between songs, he told stories of his great-grandfather’s move to Saskatchewan, incompetent French generals of the 1930s, and everything in-between. By contrast, Duckmandu (Aaron Seeman) was all-business, storming through punk covers, country songs, and originals from his new album, Shut the Duck Up and Play Accordion. He closed with his always-popular “flaming hat” rendition of “Highway to Hell.”

As soon as Corn Mo hit the stage, one of my friends turned and asked “Is this guy the love child of Meatloaf and Freddie Mercury?” His show-stopping performance of “We Are the Champions” did little to dispute that hypothesis and Corn Mo had the crowd eating out of his hand for his entire set. (Anna declared him “Best in Show” for the night.) Each show on the Monsters tour has featured a special guest and, after Corn Mo, we were treated to a rare set by the Bay Area’s own Mark Growden. (Mark wins the award for most drool-worthy accordion — what appeared to be a chromatic Bugari.)

Finally, the man who organized it all — Jason Webley — took the stage and whipped the crowd into a frenzy with nonstop sing-a-longs and even a cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” thrown in for good measure. He was floored by the passionate, accordion-loving crowd and remarked that “the tides are changing… in three or four years, people are going to be embarrassed to admit they took guitar lessons as a kid.” The show closed with all five accordionists onstage performing (or just drinking along to) Webley’s “Drinking Song” as the crowd spun in circles and headed out into the cool San Francisco night.

It was a fantastic event and, if you’re in the Bay Area tonight, be sure to catch the last show of the tour over at Smythe’s Accordion Center in Oakland. This is absolutely a can’t-miss, must-see show. Even if you’re up in Cotati today (we’re headed there now), you can still make it down in time for the Monsters show.

For those who couldn’t be there last night, here’s a video I recorded of Corn Mo performing “We Are the Champions”:

Despite our best efforts to stay on top of all accordion-related festivals, one occasionally slips in under the radar. Fortunately, the Lincoln Journal Star has an excellent recap of last weekend’s Wilber Czech Festival in tiny Wilber, Nebraska (“Czech Capital of the USA”).

The 46th annual festival drew close to 45,000 people (to a town of only 1,700) for a weekend of Czech food (mmm… kolaches), polka music and dancing, and an accordion jamboree. Check out the accompanying audio slideshow to hear Charlie Keller, president of the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber, talk about the culture of the Wilber Czech Festival.

Nebraska Czech Queen Shandra Korbelik, 18, plays the accordion

Sounds like last weekend’s Pulaski Polka Days, where “polka rhythm filled the air and infiltrated people’s bones,” was a rousing success. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s recap, there was a lively turnout — young and old alike — for the 29th edition of one of the nation’s biggest polka festivals:

“If you think polka music is uncool or only for the elderly, talk to Eric Niziolek, 25, and his buddies, who have been coming to the event from their homes near Wausau every year for about the last five years. ‘Good music, good people, girls and beer,’ said Niziolek when asked what kept him coming back.”

I also found a Flickr photoset that captures the festival parade, as well as some of the bands, including the shot below — appropriately titled “Only in Wisconsin.”

Pulaski Polka Days 2007, uploaded by The Dana Files

Crustacean Accordion Orchestra, uploaded by sameffron

It’s not everyday that you see a group of marching, accordion-playing shrimp, but then again, Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade isn’t an everyday event. This shot catches the ladies of the Main Squeeze Accordion Orchestra squeezing their way through last month’s parade and sporting some truly fantastic shrimp hats. (Check out their costumes from last year’s parade, too.)

Update: For more accordion shrimp, check out this excellent photoset from one of the Main Squeezers.

Street Band, uploaded by Fhoys

Love this photo of a street band busking in Madrid with not one, not two, but three accordionists. We definitely need some groups like this roaming the streets here in the US…