The Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics’ Poll is up and, like most things chosen by committee, it’s not particuarly exciting. But the thing I like about the poll is that you can click on albums and song titles to see which critics chose them, and then you can see their full song and album lists, which could lead to some stuff you might not know about. Solange’s awesome T.O.N.Y., for instance, only made it onto two lists, but both Starrene Rhett’s and Reed FIscher’s feature enough stuff I like (Gang Gang Dance! Jazmine Sullivan!) to make me wonder about the stuff I don’t know (Pepi Ginsberg? Human Highway? Murs?)
Anyway, here’s how my favorite songs and albums ranked on the list, along with the number of critics that gave the shoutouts.
Albums:
1. The Kills, Midnight Boom (#124, 11)
2. Beach House, Devotion (#62, 15)
3. Portishead, Third (#3, 102)
4. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (#4, 80)
5. The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust (#76, 12)
6. Sam Phillips, Don’t Do Anything (#170, 6)
7. Lykke Li, Youth Novels (#81, 15)
8. The Magnetic Fields, Distortion (#49, 22)
9. Lil Mama, VYP: Voice of the Young People (#1118, 1–yeah, Jimmy Draper, whoever you are!)
10. Silje Nes, Ames Room (n/a, 0)
Singles:
1. The Kills, Last Day of Magic (#123, 5)
2. Santogold, I’m A Lady (#323, 2)
3. Portishead, The Rip (#162, 4)
4. The Magnetic Fields, Drive On Driver (n/a, 0)
5. Rihanna, Disturbia (#15, 21)
6. Danity Kane, Damaged (#139, 4)
7. Yelle, Je Veux Te Voir (#1024, 1)
8. Annie, I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me (#98, 6)
9. Karina Pasian, 16 @ War (n/a, 0)
10. Alphabeat, Boyfriend (Pete Hammond Remix) (#572, 1)
Filed under: Uncategorized
The Providence Journal‘s news blog just posted an article about how black people love hats.
What’s with Aretha Franklin’s hat? That pearl-gray hat with the big bow that she wore yesterday to sing at President Obama’s inauguration?
That’s how it starts. For Christ’s sake, Providence Journal, Seinfeld was over in 1998.
[photo via Joe.My.God, the place to go for up-to-the-minute Aretha hat news.]
I can’t say that I know anything about the politics of Portland, Oregon, or that I know anything about Mayor Sam Adams’ personal life, aside from the fact that he’s a total dreamboat and if I lived in that fine city I’d totally try my darnedest to get in his pants.
But the fact that he had sex with an eighteen-year old in 2005 is making some people call for Adams’ resignation. The reasons for this seem to be:
1. A 42-year old man banging an 18-year old man is distasteful to voters.
2. 18 is just one year away from 17, which in Oregon means law-breaking.
3. Mayor Adams lied about the relationship–and asked the boy, whimsically named Beau Breedlove, to lie about it too–partly so nobody would think he was a chickenhawk, probably, but also because the sex lives of unmarried gay men* aren’t really anybody’s damn business.
4. 18-year old males clearly have no minds or sex drives of their own, so Adams is clearly a predator.
5. OMG gay sex!!
My response to these arguments is:
1. Get over yourselves. Two hot men having sex is not a bad thing.
2. Breedlove hasn’t accused Adams of statuatory rape, so this is a non-issue. Close only count in horseshoes and hand-grenades, as they say.
3. Just because people aren’t monogamous church-goers in stable marriages does not mean they’re bad at their jobs. Unless they’re a marriage counselor, maybe, but even then probably not. And certainly not if they’re a mayor. A gay, unattached mayor. One with hot glasses and smoldering eyes and occasional graying stubble.
4. I don’t know if anyone has ever met a seventeen-year old boy before, but they are horny, horny people. But I doubt someone that high-ranking in the government of a large city would so fragrantly break a law that could endanger his political career. Also, again, this is a non-issue.
5. Hot, right?
(*I mean, I don’t think anybody’s sex life (assuming everything’s consensual) is anybody’s damn business unless someone feels like talking about it, but I know the rest of America’s not with me on that one.)
