Kele Okereke from Bloc Party.

Finally uploaded my pictures from the Bloc Party (4/5@Paradise) and Interpol (3/9@the Orpheum) shows to HERE. I took a lot of them, and especially the Bloc Party ones turned out pretty decent. The lighting at the Interpol show kind of fucked with the end result, but you get the idea. I think I am going to buy a better Canon Elph because I really like being able to carry my SD100 in my pocket, but I need more megapixels (3.2) and zoom (2x optical).

Both shows were excellent, though very different in feel. The Interpol show we had second row reserved seats at the Orpheum, so that was a very cool show to see because the venue is large and Interpol have become "big" (it's all relative). Meanwhile, Bloc Party were doing their first major US tour and so it was a very enthusiastic but smaller crowd at a smaller venue. Great energy from the band, with the results surpassing my expectations actually, which were high. The only downer was that they didn't play "Compliments," the stand-out chill track and album closer off Silent Alarm. They did however play "The Marshals Are Dead" and "Tulips," two excellent tracks which did not make their debut.

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Cookie Monster goes on a diet!

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Here's a story about Milwaukee Brewers' rookie shortstop J.J. Hardy, and how his Iraqi War veteran brother Logan helped him get through his injury-shortened 2004 season. With that setup you'd think this would be a nice little deal celebrating veterans or whatever. Not really though:

The Army actually made Logan come home against his will, eventually giving him a medical discharge over what was considered erratic behavior.

"After returning to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Logan volunteered to join units being dispatched to South Korea. He was denied that assignment and then discharged."

Which begs the obvious question: exactly how crazy and "erratic" do you have to be for them NOT to let you stay in Iraq?