Are You Dead or Are You Sleeping?

I sure hope you're dead.

And so Modest Mouse opened their set at The Murat in The Egyptian Room. Ok, I lied. They didn't open the show with Are You Dead or Are You Sleeping, but I just thought that opening would sound so cool. It did. They didn't play Are You Dead until much later in the show when they already had the house good and rocking. They played with a lot of energy and although I could not understand any of Issac Brock lyrics it was still a great show. Man Man opened the show, and can only be described by Sara as what Kurt Vonnegut's band would sound (and look) like. Really bizarre....but entertaining.

I realized once again how much I hate The Egyptian Room as a venue. All the Egyptian decor (The Murat used to be a Masonic Temple) is quite memorable but unfortunately the room has about the same acoustics as a pyramid. Terrible. Plus it's large and flat. Good luck if you can't snag great seats.

As previously discussed, I went daily to Starbucks to get a free iTunes Song of the Day. Finally, after 32 days, the promotion is over and I can go back to leading a normal life. Except I can't. The promotion worked. I keep going back. I genuinely like the experience. All this crap I learn in school about the "Starbucks Experience" is true. It does exist. The people are just so nice. They say "Word" when I comment about the weather. They play good music. You're probably just assuming that it's a caffeine addiction. So what if it was. I'm not Mormon. I don't live by the Word of Wisdom (singular, although there are multiple words). I can be addicted to coffee if I want. Except I'm not. Sometimes I get decaf. Sometimes I get tea. It's not about the caffeine.

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world (oil is numero uno), and just about every country in the world drinks it (except for China). When Starbucks builds a store, coffee sales at all coffee shops in the area historically have increased by as much as 25%. Starbucks is 25 times largest than the second largest chain (Caribou Coffee). It runs the industry. Since Starbucks buys coffee from all over the world they have been able to mitigate a lot of the risk associated with a catastrophic crop failure in an individual region. I can only see one thing that can stop them. The government. I see it as only a matter of time before the government starts to heavily regulate coffee. How could they not? They regulate the tabacco industry, they regulate the alcohol industry, and they regulate the fast food industry. You think the government will stand by and let by Starbucks build their goal of 20,000 US stores (they currently have 10,500 but less than 10% of the US market) without wanting a piece of the action? How many senators would love to make a name for themselves by attempting to stop this great caffeine dispensing giant? Oh it will happen. It will be epic and it will be nasty. But until then, drink up and be merry.

Song Recommendation - Float On by Modest Mouse