The amendment to legalize all ages-shows in Omaha passed with a 5-2 vote! I just returned from the City Council meeting. I may provide more details later, but the proceedings were long, very hot and had all the (unintended) dry humor of a British comedy series.

Among the topics discussed (and I mean really discussed): the definition of exotic dancing in many aspects including dress or lack thereof, the use of poles and whether or not actual dancing has to be involved, karoake as an art form, the decline of rap and the use of turntables, the price of drinks, laptop rock and bad parenting/using a rock club in lieu of a babysitter because the cover might be cheaper than paying a sitter. Who knew council meetings could be so entertaining?

For those of you interested in keeping up with the changing cultural landscape of Omaha, American Apparel will open in the complex that currently houses Slowdown, Film Streams, Secret Penguin (graphic design), BBB Ltd.(skateboarding and urban apparel shop) and Urban Outfitters. It should be open in a few months.

There’s definitely an interesting discussion to be had about owner/CEO Dov Charney and his behavior at work and official statements, including testimony from his current sexual harassment trial (3 counts), but that’s a longer story/post…maybe for another day…

Dear Weather gods, El Nino, Global warming, Sun, and Thermometers,

I hereby request that you bring the temperature back into the double digits, or at the very least, out of the negative wind chill range. It is seriously cold. A cold so cold that my brain froze out any hint of memory of cold that cold. And I think I’m getting a cold.

Warmly,
Lindsay

A new store is opening here in Omaha, called Pulp. I am very enthused as it sells something I get very excited about: paper. It specializes in letterpress stationary (love it!) and also sells “unique tote bags and wallets, journals, prints, art and design books and other paper/wood-based accessories.”

In addition, Pulp is also “home to an art space dedicated to showing contemporary works on paper, including (but definitely not limited to) printmaking, photography, painting, sculpture and book arts.”

Exciting!

The grand opening of the gallery at Pulp is Saturday night, and it features the artwork of Omahan Joey Lynch (see photo of artwork above). You can see more of his stuff here.

Near the end of True Blue:

I saw Bright Eyes tonight at the intimate bar/venue The Waiting Room – thanks to Cynthia who skillfully procured the hard-to-get tickets. The show was pretty amazing. It’s too late (or too early) to write about it in any articulate or even cohesive way. Simon Joyner and Flowers Forever opened — sadly, I missed most of Flowers’ set, but enjoyed what I did see and Simon Joyner sounded good tonight too. Bright Eyes set list photo below.

Here’s Tilly & the Wall’s entrance to the Slowdown stage tonight in Omaha. They were awesome. They looked like they were having a lot of fun. It’s so great when bands actually smile. Members of Tilly smile a lot. That is one of the great things about them. They played a bunch of great songs, the tap dancing was amazing (the number of tappers is growing…), the crowd was really into it — and the show was free! Can’t get much better than that.