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Being a sudden new glutton for television, having re-acquired cable, I was watching The Daily Show this evening. Fairly certain it was a re-run, I nearly turned to other boob-tube pleasures when I realized I was suddenly watching a Free Press Summerfest TV commercial. In one of the rarest acts of first-time DVR use ever, I actually rewound and watched a commercial a second time.

THE FREE PRESS SUMMERFEST AD from Free Video Houston on Vimeo.

It struck me: folks are stepping out of the alley. Here I am watching a commercial that was just begging for the John Stewart-demographic. And it was by a local, essentially DIY, effort. Air time means money. Advertising during the Daily Show certainly means a good deal of money. And yet here is someone that is making smart, higher-stakes decisions and really going for it. Really stepping out of the alley.

(Aside: There are countless examples of why the Daily Show appeals to the sort of forward-looking people that will ven like a diagram with the attendees of this festival. On a current events note, a much larger percentage of the population than had before learned this week who Ken Salazar is and what the Minerals Management Service does. However, it turns out that, almost exactly a year ago, Salazar was on the Daily Show and talked about the MMS. You can read my take on it here.)

I was thinking about this musically a bit the other day too. Not quite to the same HD extent, but I have been putting more than one march down the record groove on some new black lately. The Energy’s first record is absolutely a treat. The Black Congress and Grandfather Child 7″s likewise. And check out this video of the tour-refined Wild Moccasins:

Some kinda cool video thing for a cool blog thing. Love it. They got a record coming out this week. Friday. Stepping out of the Alley. You can peep the details and maybe score some passes from 29-95.com. So I’m looking forward to this all. I’m not talking about coming out of the woods or anything. Just nice to be noticing it all again.