First off, thanks to everyone who sent suggestions for my trip to Manhattan last week. Most revolved around dining, and resulted in a trip to Thai Me Up on East 14th St. and the Doughnut Plant at 379 Grand St. in the Lower East Side. I’ll recap the trip tomorrow in this week’s column.

A few newsy notes from my inbox:

There’s a story in today’s OWH about yesterday’s Omaha City Council meeting where a proposed ordinance was introduced by Councilman Jim Suttle that would create a new category of businesses called “music venues.” The ordinance would allow these designated bars to admit minors as long as they followed security measures including having wristbands for those 21 and older and serving alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks in different glasses, according to the OWH. Among those speaking for the ordinance were Matt Oberst (Mr. Oberst), David Jacobson (Film Stream’s Rachel’s dad), Jason Kulbel (Slowdown) and Marc Leibowitz (The Waiting Room). Speaking against it were members of Project Extra Mile (PEM), a group formed to fight underage drinking.

The story implies that without the ordinance, The Waiting Room and Slowdown wouldn’t be allowed to host all-ages shows. Kulbel said it would be “pretty devastating” if the Slowdown could no longer allow minors in to see bands. “The amount of shows that would come to Omaha would dwindle,” he said in the OWH report. Read the whole story here.

I don’t need to tell anyone who reads this site how important this ordinance is to our music scene. Most of us grew up going to all-ages shows. I understand PEM’s concerns, but these folks need to realize that if their kids want booze, there are easier ways to get it than going to a rock show and risking getting booted and banned from the facility. If anything, TWR and Slowdown are ultra-vigilant about this sort of thing because they don’t want to risk both getting ticketed and getting a reputation among parents as a place where kids can acquire alcohol. You can voice your support of the ordinance by contacting your City Council representative. Do it now. The vote is next Tuesday.

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Interesting new interview with Tim Kasher in The Maneater (here). Kasher talks about the process of making a new Cursive album, his screen-writing efforts and living in L.A. Inspirational quote: “We joked a lot on Happy Hollow about how we were trying to do a new brand of folk metal, but it didn’t turn out. It was brought up at practice the other day that maybe this is getting closer to folk metal. Like, I say that, and it’s not going to sound anything like folk metal.” Sounds like multi-instrumentalist Nate Lepine is a permanent addition to the line-up.

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One of the first reviews of the new Neva Dinova disc landed at Aversion.com (here). They give the disc three stars and compare it to Bright Eyes, for which they say the band is so “closely intertwined,” calling the disc “a little bit predictable for anyone who’d hope the band (would) break free of its Omaha-folk roots.” Somewhat luke-warm. The album comes out next Tuesday.

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Nada Surf, who’s on the road supporting Lucky, their latest album on Barsuk/City Slang (Rough Trade). Opening is LA band Sea Wolf (Dangerbird Records) and Omaha’s own Little Brazil. $14, 9 p.m.

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