Tomorrow, Wednesday, is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. SWOP has a list of stuff going on around the world. San Francisco has a lot going on, as you’d expect, but there’s also events throughout Canada and even in Skopje, Macedonia. The best event, though, might be London’s:
Sex Worker Carol Singing in London, England
Wednesday 17th December at 7:30pm
St. Anne’s CofE Church, 55 Dean Street, Soho (nearest tube Piccadilly Circus). End Violence Against Sex Workers Day — join sex workers from around the globe in raising awareness of violence against us. Come and sing carols and drink mulled wine. Bring a bottle. Organized by The International Union of Sex Workers.
Nothing at all going on in New England, as far as I can tell, but Bound, Not Gagged is having some kind of online happening.
Last night I had a dream that, I guess, reflected all of my anxieties about my temp job, my soon-to-be housing situation, and my fear of missing deadlines. Oddly, though, it was a pretty happy dream.
Britney Spears was playing in Providence. I got a call from her manager, saying that when she tours she avoids hotels and that the last time she came to town she stayed in one of the extra bedrooms in the large mansion that I had recently inherited. I asked which bedroom and the manager said it didn’t matter, so I went to figure out which one would be best, because I figured Britney would be particular. Some of the many bedrooms in my mansion, all of which were comletely unfamiliar to me, even in the dream, included a really narrow slopy one with green lights and a stripper pole, one that looked like a Victorian B&B, and one that was all white and fluffy.
Anyway, so then Britney came over and she was wicked nice, but the problem was that apparently my house was occupied by lots of other people, none of whom I had ever seen but all of whom were suddenly going to be home. So Britney took my room (the white fluffy one) and I just stayed up all night.
Then, after she left to go to her concert (I thought I’d get some free tickets, but no such luck) I found out that everybody in my house was going on strike (or whatever) because apparently I was a slumlord and charging way too much rent. One of my tenants, I noticed, was this woman that I work with, who told me she’d been living in the house for years.
I asked her how she could afford to be there so long if I was charging so much, and she told me that she’s been dealing drugs for the last thirty years to cover rent.
Then some hippies came over to buy some board games that I was selling, including Electronic Talking Battleship, but then my co-worker and I couldn’t get the hippies to leave so decided to just watch TV with them. There was some kind of celebrity figure skating special on, and George Michael was there along with some other people I can’t remember now. He was skating and singing Freedom (the Wham one, not Freedom ’90) and wearing basically the black leather equivalent of David Byrne’s big white suit.
Then I woke up. Oddly, this is the first dream in months that I’ve actually remembered for more than thirty seconds after I woke up.
In more nightmarish news, one of my co-workers at the temp job recently bought The Best of Toto and has been listening to Africa and Rosanna pretty much nonstop for the past six hours. I kind of want to cry now.
Okay, here’s the start of my favorite songs of the year list. Hopefully I’ll post ten (or eleven) songs a day between now and Saturday, to pump everyone up for the live countdown on Sunday morning.
This was a funny year; I spent the first nine months of it at a desk job listening to stuff I found on music blogs all day. Then I spent the last three without a computer, but doing a weekly pop radio countdown that involved me listening to hits from other countries on a weekly basis. So I had to actively seek out good stuff to listen to more than usual. Luckily, though, I think I did a pretty good job finding it.
(for the rest of the list, click here.)
101. Claire Diterzi, Zubrowka (mp3)
Filles Sourires is one of my favorite blogs to find new French stuff, and back in January they posted this wonderfully gloomy Diterzi track. Unfortunately, my grasp of the French language has deteriorated to the point where I can’t find much info about her beyond that one blog entry.
100. Martina Topley-Bird, Valentine
Ms. Topley-Bird’s second album didn’t really make a big splash, and I only heard this one song, though the rest of the album’s supposed to be quite good. But this song is very lovely.
99. Peter Moren, Le Petit Coeur
After the massive success of Young Folks, I was surprised that nobody seemed to like (or even hear about) Seaside Rock, Peter Bjorn and John’s follow-up album. Sadder still is that everybody also ignored La Petit Coeur, Peter’s delightful solo single.
98. Lisa, Drole de Creepie
The French sure love to listen to kids sing, for some reason. Their pop charts are full of theme songs from kids shows and songs sung by pre-teens and this, a theme from a kids show sung by a pre-teen. It’s catchy, though, and more interesting than songwriter Mylene Farmer’s own stuff this year.
97. Vampire Weekend, Ottoman
One of the most delightful surprises of the year was the Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist Soundtrack, which took every trendy New York band and smooshed them together (alongside Richard Hawley and The Real Tuesday Weld) into one really delightful mix album. Bands like Vampire Weekend and We Are Scientists actually sounded a lot more interesting in that context.
96. The Notwist, Where In This World?
The Notwist waited six years after their much-beloved Neon Golden to put out a new record, and I don’t think anyone even noticed. It’s too bad, though, as this single’s quite nice.
95. Cannonball Jane, Crush On You
From the fun Buffetlibre Rewind series, Cannonball Jane’s garagey Jets cover stood out among lots and lots of dancy remixes. Although maybe I’m just partial to this one because I rediscovered how awesome the Jets are this summer.
94. Ashlee Simpson, Boys
I totally forgot about Boys until I started compiling this list. ShleeSimp’s third album tanked, selling fewer copies in the past nine months than her previous albums did in their first week. The singles barely broke the Hot 100, but Boys (which wasn’t actually a single for some reason) is fun dance-pop, though it’s no Girlfriend or L.O.V.E. by any means.
93. TV On The Radio, Love Dog
I actually liked Dear Science quite a bit, largely for this swoony ballad. I didn’t actually listen to it much, though, as I got the Lykke Li album on the same day, and her album sort of took over my fall.
92. Amanda Palmer, Oasis
The only song I’ve heard from Palmer’s debut solo album, it sounds more or less exactly like the Dresden Dolls did. Which, while I guess they’re sort of polarizing, I’d say is definitely a good thing.
91. Estelle, Come Over (featuring Sean Paul)
Okay, so I know American Boy is a good song. But I’d just like to remind everyone how much better things were five years ago, when every song on R&B radio was a fun duet with Sean Paul and not a crappy one with Assy Kanye West. Also, though I don’t normally go for the girls, can I just say that Estelle should win some kind of award for Beautifulest New Artist? She is GORGEOUS.
