I’m DJing a Christmas party tonight at Local 121 in Providence. I just burned my finger on the oven rack making a white chocolate bread pudding, too. That’s how much I love you people. The ones in Rhode Island, at least. (more…)
There’s a Christmas song on here, but it’s a really bleak one. In similarly-related news, if you’re in the UK, perhaps you might want to buy the new Malcolm Middleton single today? It’s really good, actually.
If you like the music, you should use some of your hard-earned money to buy it. If you’re in Rhode Island, maybe you might want to do that at Tom’s Tracks, which is closing after 23 years on Thayer Street. The whole store’s half off.
1. Tom Vek, Nothing But Green Lights
2. James Dean Bradfield, Bad Boys And Painkillers
3. Beth Orton, Stars All Seem To Weep
4. George Harrison, What Is Life
5. Six Organs of Admittance, Jade Like Wine
6. John Barry Seven, Hit And Miss
7. John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey, That Was My Veil
8. Teardrop Explodes, Ha Ha I’m Drowning
9. Arab Strap, Xmas (Baby, Please Come Home)
10. The Ramones, Danny Says
11. Of Montreal, Where Eagles Dare (Misfits Cover)
12. Broadcast, Michael A Grammar
13. Syreeta, Your Kiss Is Sweet
14. Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Wawa
15. Freda Payne, The Easiest Way To Fall
16. Bunny Wailer, Iron Shirt
17. Wham!, Club Tropicana
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: crime prevention, the oldest profession
In case you hadn’t heard, tomorrow is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Here’s what SWOP (The Sex Workers Outreach Project) has to say about it on their website:
December 17th is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This event was created to call attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers all over the globe. The laws against prostitution are harmful to society. They perpetuate the abuse of otherwise law-abiding citizens, particularly women. They allow people like the Green River killer in Seattle, Washington to rationalize violent and murderous behavior toward prostitutes, especially women. “I wanted to kill as many … as I possibly could. I knew they would not be reported missing right away, and might never be reported. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught.” (Superior Ct. of WA for King Co.; State of Washington vs. Gary Leon Ridgway, Statement of Defendant on Plea of Guilty). Gary Leon Ridway was sentenced to 48 life terms and was fined $10,000 for each victim on December 18, 2003.
Unequal protection under the law is what allows prostitutes to be pimped, enslaved, beaten, raped and murdered. If decriminalized, sex workers would have access to protection from criminals just like every other citizen. In addition, enormous amounts of public safety revenues are spent enforcing sex “crimes” that occur in private, in which the participants are consenting and there is no victim.
We believe the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas gives lawmakers the legal authority to take steps to begin repealing the laws against prostitution. We are asking the citizens of the United States to demand that their elected officials adopt resolutions imploring US states move forward with legislation that will not only protect sex workers from violent criminals, but will also allow occupational and civil rights.
Consensual sexual activity between or among adults, whether or not for money or other consideration should be legal, and no adult in this state should be punished, or denied any right or privilege, for engaging in such activity.
This event has been published in books, and has grown to over 100 locations worldwide. It has been officially sanctioned by the cities of San Francisco and Berkeley, also by the State of California.
There’s stuff going on to commemorate the day in a bunch of cities, including New York, Montreal, San Francisco and Atlanta, as well as smaller places like Burlington, Vermont and Lansing, Michigan. There’s also an online vigil at the SWOP East website.
As far as I can tell there are no events planned in New England except that one Vermont one.
At long last, my choices for the 10 Best Songs of 2007. I’ve kept this list to one song per artist, and that made the top 10 especially hard, since about half of these songs came from albums with a number of Top 10-worthy songs on them. Also, any one of these songs might have ended up at #1 at various points during the year, and since compiling my initial list the songs in the top 10 have changed position a few times. But here’s my final list, the ten songs that I loved to itty-bitty pieces this year. I’ll probably regret the order of the top 10 the minute I hit the Publish button but that’s how it goes. As it is I already regret leaving a couple of things off the Top 101 altogether.
Some of the songs in the top 10 were mega-hits. Some of them are still pretty obscure to most people. At least four of them are over a year old (one’s actually from an album that came out two years ago), but try not to get too hung up on details. Just listen and enjoy.
(PS–I’ll be counting down the top 25 live on the radio tonight at midnight EST. 88.1 FM in Providence and here on the information superhighway. The show will be archived at the website, too, so you can listen to it any time after that as well.) (more…)
Time for the top 20, wherein I heap an increasingly cheesy amount of praise on the songs that I really dug this year. (more…)
In this edition, lots of Europeans and lots of Americans. Surprise! (more…)
Every year, my roommate and I put out a Christmas single for the seven or so people who can actually stand to put up with our lame attempts at making music. It started in 2001, with a version of Dominick The Donkey that I sang into a tape recorder while Ethan beat time on the dashboard of my Accord. We recorded it, I’m pretty sure, in a parking lot outside a gym in Gales Ferry, Connecticut. Since then, we’ve done either a single or an EP every year, and often invited other people to help out. Sometimes we sing songs together (under the name The Gloomy Pharmacists) sometimes he does songs by himself (as Glove Compartment) and sometimes I do solo stuff (as The Glueguns.) This year, the single is a Glueguns track, a medley of traditional holiday favorites including Adeste Fideles, Away In A Manger, and Y Control. It’s available at gloomypharmacy.com, along with a selection of our other holiday singles from over the years. Or just click below for some Yuletide treats.
The Glueguns, Christmas Medley 2007
The Glueguns, Christmas Medley 2007 (Karaoke Version)
Bonus Tracks:
The Glueguns, It’s Snowing Men (2006)
The Gloomy Pharmacists, Masters In This Hill (2006)
The Glueguns, Santa Baby (2004)
Glove Compartment, Deck The Halls (2002)
The Gloomy Pharmacists, The Egg Nog Song (2001)
Taking a break from the endless countdown to put up this week’s mix, which features a couple of songs from this year but lots of sixties-themed stuff, including the Bristols and Death By Chocolate covers. I might as well say now that nothing from Thurston Moore’s solo album made my top 100 this year, but only because I didn’t actually listen to it until the other day. I like it a lot, and it’s especially good to listen to when you go to bed and have no heat.
As always, if you like the music, you should go out and buy it. If you live in Providence, you might want to do that at Tom’s Tracks. After 23 years, they’re closing down at the end of the month and everything in the store is 25% off. There’s bound to be good stuff in there, especially since all the Brown students don’t buy physical copies of music anymore. Also, that’s going to only leave four (four!) independent places to buy music in the whole state.
Okay, we’re up to the top fifty. If you’d like to listen along without having to click on the videos, you can hear me count down from #50 to #26 on my radio show. Although, you know, that might kill the suspense of the next two installments of the list. (more…)
