i went to my first seder dinner on sunday night, and had a wonderful time. it wasn’t the most strict or serious by any means — the haggadah was in a dr. seussish style and we kept making jokes throughout — and yet we still got to learn some about the tradition and eat some kosher food. well done, friends.

now a music post.

i went and picked up the albums i’d written about a few posts ago, and they seem to be pretty solid. i also grabbed the new raconteurs album on an impulse, and i think that turned out to be the best of the bunch. i really dig the first single ‘salute your solution’, and the general quality of the whole album. it feels so good to have a solid straightforward rock record to listen to. it’s not wildly different than a white stripes album, maybe just a little fuller sounding. and if it registers with people, my guess for the second single would either be one of the middle tracks that’s a little softer and balladesque, or even better, the title track, consoler of the lonely. that’s a great little track one kickoff song full of spit and fire that made me instantly like the album as soon as i popped it in. good pay day song.

then last night, we went to the nokia theatre downtown to catch kanye’s glow in the dark tour. sadly, this did not mean a replication of his utterly cool grammy performance (did i just use those words together?). instead, we got a crazily produced stage show with the premise of kanye crashing a spaceship on a strange planet and occasionally discussing with his female-voiced ship’s computer how they could escape. there were many starfield backdrops, bursts of steam, smoke, and flame, and an elevating platform. it was wild.

now prior to the show, several friends had been hating on kanye for his huge ego, and seeing this show puts an interesting spin on that. on one hand, it was utterly a showcase of him and him only. the ending involved the computer telling him that ‘he’s the brightest star in the universe’ and only he had the power to get them home. not exactly humble. but at the same time i have to give the guy a ton of credit. he was front and center for over an hour all by himself, singing and rhyming his heart out, sweating bullets, running and dancing all over the stage, never slowing down or letting up. it was a great, great show. possibly the best hip hop performance i will see for a long, long time. so ego or not, he’s certainly not resting on any laurels, and i can’t hold it against him that he thinks he’s amazing, because he basically was. can you really hate him for that?