Local Flavor

The Post Style section featured a neat profile of Brian Weitz from Animal Collective on his life in the H Street corridor (he lived three blocks from us!). I thought it was interesting that he kept his Hill job while he was starting with the band. You have to pay the bills somehow, right? I also thought it was interesting how rarely he was recognized in DC. Perhaps I've seen him on H Street or Eastern Market, right? I guess this is another indication we're up for the hipsters.

And this is a neat anecdote:

But most interactions have been harmless, even sweet. Weitz remembers the shock of his first encounter with an excited fan. He was buying bagels in Brooklyn when the clerk blurted out a question about Animal Collective’s next gig.
Years later, Weitz was at a Williamsburg bar where Chris Taylor, bassist for the band Grizzly Bear, approached him: “ ‘I don’t know if you remember me, man, but I was working at this bagel place . . .’ ”

And this:

He didn’t always love it. After a Philadelphia childhood (he’s loyal to the Flyers), a Baltimore adolescence and his studies in New York, Weitz says he’s struggled to find his footing in the transience of Washington.
“I just decided if I’m going to be here, I should stop complaining about it and engage,” Weitz says. So he bought a house and signed on as investor in Toki Underground, the ramen shop on H Street NE.
“He’s just very polite, quiet and to himself,” says Erik Bruner-Yang, chef and owner of Toki. “But when he does say something, you should pay attention. . . . He understands the balance between doing what you love and trying to be able to make a living.”