Music: I wanted to take a second to mourn the passing of The Patio. For 40 years, The Patio has stood as the benchmark of what made a local band successful.

If you had the juice to pack The Patio, then you were a member of an elite club that other locals could only aspire to join. Many a drunken musician would brag to me there after their set, “I played the same stage that Bowie played, man. Fuckin' Bowie!!” before raising their beer as if to toast the rock gods. Well, the rock gods lose one more altar next week when The Patio closes down after a long, long run. But it definitely goes out with a bang, not a whimper. This whole month has been chock full of shows that read like a who’s who of Indianapolis music. Indy’s poet of the lonesome highway; Otis Gibbs will close it out on the final show Novemeber 26th. I can think of no better person to be on the stage when the house lights go down for the last time.

Comics: In my ongoing effort to prove that comics are not just for kids, I’m going to evangelize to you about the comics that are far and away above the norm.

Maus can’t be called a secret pick. It’s been written up and lauded in the New Yorker, New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Newsweek and probably even our own Nuvo newsweekly at some point.

It’s the story of Vladek Spiegelman and his ordeal at Aushwitz, told through the eyes of his son Art Spiegelman (of Garbage Pail Kids fame) who draws the whole thing in a captivatingly ugly style. He renders all the Jews in it as mice and the Nazi’s as cats but it is by no means Disney-esque.

Most comics are drawn large and then reduced to 66% of the original size to clean up the line work. Maus was drawn on small 5x7 cardstock and then blown up to make the line work appear crude and and ragged. Some might say the metaphor of the ugliness of the Nazis perpetrated is a bit ham-handed, but I thought it was very well done.

BEER: I’m too broke even for Red Dog this week, so hit me up next week. If some kind soul buys me a beer, I’ll review that brew next time!

Posted by wayneb at November 20, 2005 06:28 PM