Feedback recently caught up with Wes Swing at his gorgeous practice space on a local farm, where the local cello wiz kid said he’s in the final stages of recording a new full-length record. Never one to be caught off guard, Swing, drummer Brian Caputo and singer Sophia Brunner were ready to sample a few tracks on camera. If you’ve ever seen Swing perform, you’ll know you’re in for a treat: hummable, evocative melodies plucked out on a cello, drizzled with outside-the-box percussion, and served over a rich set of loops. Take a peek below.

Wes Swing.

Starting tomorrow, the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library wants you to get a free library card, and you know what? You oughtta. The card—designed through last year's Design Marathon at the Charlottesville Community Design Center—gets you much more than just books.

• Check out music CDs
• Use the internet in all branches of the library system
• Use computer word processing in all branches
• Access online databases that the library subscribes to

Plus, it's pretty snazzy looking:

Looking even further into the future, the Library's also got a "10 in 10" event in October—the 10th month, you'll recall—where you'll receive 10 percent off stuff you buy at area businesses, just for signing up for a free library card. Learn more about that here.

Don't forget to take out lots of books.

If you've watched “The Jersey Shore,” “The Biggest Loser,” “My Super Sweet 16,” “Britney and Kevin: Chaotic,” “The Littlest Groom,” any of the “Real Housewives” shows, “The Swan,” “Amish in the City” or any “Real World” season since 1992, you probably know that reality television has a way of casting humanity in the most unflattering light possible. But the documentary style has opened the airwaves for three shows with local ties in more flattering ways.

• Jackson Landers, the 32-year-old local man who garnered a writeup in the New York Times for his classes that offer a link between hunting and the local food movement, says that he is working on a pilot for Animal Planet, tentatively called "Eating Aliens." The show would follow Landers as he travels the world finding creative ways to hunt and, with the help of a chef, eat invasive species. (Zebra mussel stew, anyone?) Landers' first book, A Locavore's Guide to Deer Hunting, will be out in 2011.

• I followed a tip this morning that one Prince Poppycock, the flamboyant pop-opera singer who has become a finalist on “America's Got Talent,” was from Keswick. As it turns out, Poppycock—born John Andrew Quale—grew up in Northern Virginia, and his mother Kathleen Quale lives in Keswick and works at Monticello. So if nothing else, let this be a warning to you: If you see a man dressed in the style of the 18th century French aristocracy, his face caked in thick white makeup, never fear. He's only a singer, passing through to visit his mother. "Talent" shows Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9pm on NBC.

Masculinity's answer to Lady Gaga has local ties. More below.

• This is just in from UVA Today's news blog: Phil Plait, who earned a Ph.D. in Astronomy from UVA in the '90s, hosts a new show on the Discovery Channel called “Bad Universe,” which first airs on Sunday at 10pm. In it Plait, in the mode of the “Mythbusters,” puts claims about astronomy to the test. Who said that stargazing never got anyone anywhere?

Dude's got his head in the clouds.

Any other folks with local ties on TV lately?