I interrupt your regularly scheduled crushing negativity for a little effusive praise...

I'm very proud to report that my boyfriend, Darcy James Argue, kicked all kinds of ass in  DownBeat's 58th Annual Critics Poll, winning Big Band Rising Star, Composer Rising Star. and Arranger Rising Star on the strength of his debut album, Infernal Machines, recorded with that miraculous steampunk contraption known to the Illuminati as "Secret Society."

You can buy Infernal Machines on the New Amsterdam Records website, which I would encourage you to do for totally dispassionate and impartial reasons. Just saying...

See photos from the making of the record, here; and photos from Secret Society's most recent performance at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, here.

[Photo credit: Lindsay Beyerstein]