This band is so awesome.

MUSIC.

Reading is awesome. Young Steph didn't need Scholastic to tell her so. Friends who couldn't figure it out on their own immediately (video games are still pretty tempting) took the hint later from paper-pushing television stars like LeVar Burton and Wishbone. And now, there's a duo of magical musical heroes to help younguns on the noble road to becoming English majors. They're touring the country and fighting the good fight for books and love with one of the greatest magics of all: the power of rock and roll.

My roommate Dan and I were lucky enough to get free tickets from our radio station WUAG 103.1fm to see Harry and the Potters on tour with Uncle Monsterface and Math the Band last night at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC. Unfortunately, we realized that the show started at 6:30pm just as I was arriving home from the gym at 6:20pm. We grabbed a hurried pre-dinner of leftover Chinese (Dan) and a bologna sandwich (me) and hauled ass out of Greensboro. I was still sweaty when we arrived.

This was my third time and his second seeing Harry and the Potters, and they seem to gather larger (and older) audiences every time we've seen them play. The DeGeorge brothers, Joe and Paul, put on one of the best and most family-friendly shows I've ever seen. Their enthusiasm is rad and totally catching. I don't dance like that when I'm drunk.

They've improved as musicians since their self-titled Harry and the Potters, released in 2003. Their songs grow increasingly complex, the quality of lyrics is SO MUCH BETTER than the bald statements of their first recordings, and they use their experience to make old songs even more delightful in their live show.

The DeGeorges are super-nice dudes, too. When I mentioned to Joe that the band's distributor hadn't sent any of their albums to the station, he dashed behind the merchandise table to grab us copies of their two most recent albums, Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock and Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love. He and Paul also did a fantastic radio liner for us, which Dan recorded and hopes to have available for DJ use in the station soon.

Check out Harry and the Potters this Friday afternoon from 1-3pm EST on my radio show, The Indie-Pop 500, only on WUAG 103.1fm.


DIET AND EXERCISE.

I've had an overall improvement in my calorie intake since getting back from Raleigh Sunday night. I went home Wednesday for my mother's birthday on Friday. So there was cake. And, because the few people I know in Raleigh were all there this weekend, there was booze.

But since I've been back, I've been under my calorie limit every day.

I did thirty minutes on the elliptical and about a half-hour of weight machines both Monday and Tuesday. I'm going to use the machines again today, and also take my university gym's 45-minute Spin class. I hope I don't die -- at least, not before I can run out of the instructor's line of sight.

I plan to use The Daily Plate to set my calorie intake to lose one pound this week, two pounds next, three the week after that, and then back to one pound. Cycling through will prevent me from damaging my metabolism, but I'll still be losing a good amount of weight. If I can keep to it, I'll be down to 125lbs in about ten weeks.

Just before my twenty-first birthday, actually.

125lbs by 21. Here goes.