Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard

Although I think it’s more a passion for facial hair than Biblical duty, the boys of Child Bite have beards you can’t argue with. They also have a fundraiser coming up this Thursday at the WAB to raise money for their trek up to Anchorage where they’ll be competing in the World Beard and Moustache Championships. For serious. They need cash dollars for gasoline, which they are expecting will cost them a cool $1500. This is because Alaska is very, very far away. No word on whether Sarah Palin will be one of the judges, but we can hope, yes?

Speaking of beards, on Friday May 1st I flipped my calendar at work to reflect the fact that April has been lost forever and now a picture of ZZ Top graces my office space. I know you think this is because I have an exclusive fan club ZZ Top 2009 calendar, but you are incorrect. It’s because my calendar is a freebie from The Henry Ford, and apparently opening this month (May 16-Sept 7) is “Rock Stars’ Cars & Guitars” featuring (can you guess?) cars and guitars -- that belong to rock stars! Among the guitars featured are ones that belong to Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, Jimi Hendrix, and apparently like, all the guitars Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen has ever owned. Also his John Deere riding mower. No joke. Between that and the cars (yes, ZZ Top’s Eliminator and… wait for it… Soundgarden’s 1986 Chevrolet Beauville G10 Van), it should be pretty sweet.

For those of you hippies who have beards but can’t look past the awesome fact of a band from Detroit participating in the WBMC and are horrified at the eco-implications of a $1500 gas bill and/or look down on the glorification of rock star vehicles, you will probably be intrigued by the new record by Ann Arbor folk duo Nervous But Excited. It’s called Anchors {The Green Album} and they obsessively took all precaution to make it the greenest record ever. From packaging and promo material to tracking and using as little gas as possible by car-pooling, they've thought of everything. They even took into account the energy their equipment used and offset this using renewable energy credits. Exhausting, yet admirable! One of my Ann Arbor area favorites, Chris Bathgate plays on the record, as well as a slew of other local folks who are awesome. Check it out.