Let the Kid Have a Beer.

Many moons ago, in this blog, I raved about a new album I had discovered by a band named Beirut. Well, last night, Beirut played a show at the Crocodile in Seattle, so my wife and some friends and I went and saw them play.


Beirut... but not the show we saw.

...and I thought they were excellent! Not only did they play their songs off their album well, but they also seemed to have quite a few songs that I had never heard, but which were just as good as what I was familiar with. In addition, I was personally glad that they just came out dressed in standard clothes and didn't feel obligated to dress up in period clothing, or something, to match their sound.

Their youthful age was also impressive, and was repeatedly driven home by the fact that the lead singer desperately wanted to have a beer, but wasn't allowed to because he was underage. But heck, since the kid had more talent than pretty much everyone else in the room... I thought he deserved one.

Stuff like this reminds me that not everyone younger than me is more inane than me. And I say that fully realizing how inane I can be.

This has actually been a good week for me and music, since I also got to see Mew play in the basement of my work. There’s nothing like skipping out of work for 30 minutes to go watch a band play to an audience of, like, five people.

Also, I just got done watching comic book writer, Grant Morrison, give a 45 minute talk on YouTube. Grant's one of those writers whos work is a bit hit or miss with me. A few of his comics, like the Filth, left me cold. But other titles, like We3, rank in my all time favorites. Anyhow, the speech he was giving in this clip was for some Disinformation Convention, and is basically outlining some of his thoughts on his personal philosophy. If you can get through his ramblings about aliens and magic, there is actually some interesting concepts scattered through his speech (if only for inspirations for Sci-Fi stories, or something).

One little bit, toward the end, that I found interesting involved him talking about security cameras. And how, effectively, having cameras on every corner causes more people to act like movie stars (read: crazy); and how, in turn, having more people act crazy makes people set up more cameras. It's a self perpetuating cycle.

Anyhow, it’s an equal mixture of interesting ideas and eye-rolling mystical rambling. But, if you have 45 free minutes and need something to listen to, it might be worth checking out.

Finally, a coworker sent me me this link, which points out that Fantagraphics comics is opening a "super-store" in Seattle. Especially since Confounded Books closed its doors earlier this year, a Fantagraphics story will be a much needed addition to the Seattle comic retail scene.

Good news, indeed!